The Universe of the Four Gods:The Story of Chiriko
by CosmicMoon
Summary: A book choses a girl of high intelligence to go into it as Chiriko so she can do what the normal Chiriko did and more, but she lost her memories when she came and met 18 yr. old Houjun. What scared her was she knew the Miko's face when she came.
1. Chapter 1: Kibou

~*~*~*~*~  
Chapter one: Kibou  
~*~*~*~*~  
  
(Kibou's PoV)  
  
I walked around not really knowing where I was going. My head throbbed and I could barely see past my black bangs that were infront of my eyes, wet from the pouring rain. I put a jacket on and my hair, that was neatly put into a french braid wwas completely ruined by the rain and my hand because of fustration. I finally came to a large building with huge lettering at the top saying:  
  
TACOMA PUBLIC LIBRARY  
  
I walked inside and I saw every eye in there stare at me breifly, but then went back to what they were doing. I started to walk up and down the isles. I got really far into the library when a book fell on my head. I lost my balance by the sudden shock and rubbed my head that throbbed even more now. I picked the book up.   
  
THE UNIVERSE OF THE FOUR GODS  
The story of a warrior  
english translation  
  
That would be a strange title for a book. I opened the book dusty book and I could easily feel that it was fragile. I opened it and started to read it:  
  
This is the story of a Suzaku Warrior, one of seven destined to protect the Preistess of Suzaku,  
the warrior Chiriko, the seishi with the power of knowlegde. This story is a curse and when the   
first page is turned the story begins and the reader becomes Chiriko. The fate of this person  
depends on the gender of the person and the choices that the person makes throughout it.  
  
Confused, I tried to flip to the middle of the book, but a red light surounded me and I felt myself lift from the groud as if flying. Pressurre then suddenly pressed against me and soon I oculd feel, hear, or see anything.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
I woke feeling a warm towel on my fore head. I opened my eyes and saw myself under an unfamiliar ceiling that I could barely see. I could see the light of a candle dimmly lighting the room. I sat up but then a horrible pain came to my head and I instantly layed back down. I grabbed my head in pain and tossed and turned around the bed until the pain went away.   
  
"You should try to stay resting." said an unfamiliar voice of a young male.  
  
I looked to the side and saw a shadow of a figure of a person sitting in a chair. I couldn't quite make out what he looked like. "Where am I?"  
  
"Your in Shouryuu."  
  
"Shouryuu? Where's that?"  
  
"It's a small town, I'm not surprised that you haven't heard of it." he replied.  
  
"Who are you?"  
  
"Ri Houjun."  
  
"Thank you for taking care of me. I'm..."  
  
I tried to think of it....I couldn't remember my name! Now that I think about it....Why couldn't I remember anything? "I'm...." I tried harder to think of it, then a name came to me, Chiriko....But something inside me told me that wasn't it. "I don't remember," I said feeling foolish.  
  
"You don't? It must've been because of that head injury."  
  
I felt my forehead, it was burning. I tried to trace back in my memory of at least my name. "K.." I began...I started with a "K." "K-Kibou...Yeah, that was it! My name's Kibou."  
  
Houjun lit another candle so I could see his face. Eyes that seemed reddish but were probably brown, blue hair that was tied back in a low ponytail. "Can you remember anything else.  
  
I shook my head. "Maybe my memory will come back to me when I don't have a headache. I seem tor remember all my words, but I don't remember any real memories."  
  
There was a knock at the door. "Houjun?" it was a young female's voice. "Can I come in?"  
  
"Yeah." he answered.  
  
A young girl with brown hair wearing a pink dress came in. She smiled when she saw me. "You woke up. I was starting to get worried, you were asleep for 3 days."  
  
"Really? I'm surprised, I'm Kibou."  
  
"I'm Kouran." she said.  
  
She then turned her attention away from me and looked to Houjun. "Houjun, can I speak with you?"  
  
Her eyes clearly showed that it was bad news. Houjun got up and went outside the room. I heard nothing but muttering outside the door. "Kouran, wait!" ssaid Houjun's voice, but I only heard running off. They must've been together...Houjun came back in, he had an expression of anger but I could still see that he was very greived. He held something in his hand but the put it down in a table next to me. An engagement ring droped from it. (Did they even have rings? oh well, now they do.) They were engaged..  
  
He suddenly slammed his fist into the wall. "I swear I'll kill him!"  
  
I saw tears fill his eyes and stream down his face. "Don't try to think to harshly on it." I said trying to calm him. "I'm sure she just had a misunderstanding and has no way of handling but like this...I'm sorry for eavsedropping but I heard a little bit...I'm sure she really loves you."  
  
"But my best friend....how can he do that?!" he yelled furiously.  
  
"If you just--.....I'll talk to Kouran. I'm sure she'll understand."  
  
He looked to me a bit shocked. "Your sick, and you just woke up, I don't want to be a burd--"  
  
"Don't worry." I said interupting him. "I already feel better. I probably need some fresh air. I'll talk to Kouran, she's your finace`, she has to be understnading, because she wouldn't of said yes unless she loved you."  
  
He help me out of bed. "Thank you." he said.  
  
He told me where I might be able to fin Kouran. I found her half way there by a pond. I heard thunder, clouds were already above me, a storm was coming.  
  
"Kouran." I said as I sat next to her, she was crying. "Kouran, your being foolish, you love Houjun, don't you?"  
  
"I betrayed him." she sobed. "I kissed another man, I can't possibly marry him now."  
  
"But he still loves you, and you love him, you can still marry as long as the love stands." I said no looking to the sky.  
  
"I can't...I feel too guilty." she said hugging her knees.  
  
"You have to think about his feelings too Kouran! Your being stubburn, he's not mad at you! He loves you!" she didn't respond. There was no convincing her. "Come on Kouran, we have to get inside a storm's coming."  
  
Strong winds winds started to come around by the time we got to Kouran's house. I heard the rain starting to pour outside. And it was really pouring! I looked out the window. I had a sudden vision before my eyes, a quick flash of a girl who looked like me but in strange clothes, walking in the rain..I blinked. I rubbed my arms, I somehow became cold, and I could feel that girl's emotions, anger and fustration, but I couldn't figure out why.. I heard a loud crash in the distance and a flash of a dam breaking came to my eyes and I fell backwards and away from the window. Instantly I ran to where Kouran was. "We have to get out of here!"  
  
"Why, what's wrong?" she asked getting up abruptly.  
  
"I have a bad feeling about something, come on, we have to get to a higher elevation!" I yelled as I grabed Kouran's arm and burst out the door, I was completely wet almost instantly. I pulled her to a higher land up hill and the flood was already proceeding and it was going through rather quickly. The whole town was already starting to ruin. The dam was broken..We kept going and the water came to our feet and kouran being behind me, she triped. She shreiked, I quickly turned around and grabed her arm. Water rose very quickly up to her chest. I tried to pull her up, but I wasn't strong enough. Already I felt greived, and I wanted to pull her up, if she died, who know's how Houjun would feel. Tears of pain and greif started to fill my eyes as I tried harder to pull her up. "Hang on Kouran!"  
  
Then pressure came to my stomache, I was hit, a rock! It was flying fast and knocked the air completely out of me. I tried to hold on but my grip was loosening. I tried to hold on as I saw the flood come up to her neck. "Please Kouran! Hold on!!"  
  
Her grip was starting to get a bit more weaker as she fell more unconsious. A migrain struck me and I could barely see her, but I held on. "Kibou....Stay with Houjun....don't leave him...."  
  
She made her grip completely loosen and I wasn't strong enough to hold on, her head buried into the rushing water. Tears streamed down my face. "Kouran!!"  
  
I clenched my hands. "Kouran.."  
  
I put my right arm over my stomache and was crouched down feeling a terrible pain in my stomache. My vision was strait because of the headache that I could only try to ignore. I saw in the distance, Houjun, fighting his friend. I ran to him. When I came close enough, I wanted to stop him but his friend was in the exact situation that Kouran and I were at, Houjun was holding on to him. I tried to fight the wind to help him, but then a speeding log came flying towards him. "HOUJUN! DUCK!!!"  
  
He looked over and the log him right in the face and unwillingly let his friend go...His friend instantly disapeared. The log wasn't broken and came towards me, and me not fast enough, it hit me right on my upper arm. I grabbed it in pain and fell to my knees. With every inch of my body aching badly, I crawled to Houjun who was screaming in pain from losing his left eye, his hand that held the eye was completely bloody and the blood had stained his hair but it was dripping out from the pouring rain. I came next to him and riped the sleeve off that was almost riiped off anyway on my left arm. "Come on, we have to get that bleeding to stop."  
  
My left arm, too numb to feel pain, but barely moving, riped the sleeve a little more. "Tilt your head back."  
  
I seemed to remember some information that I learned, but I couldn't tell where I learned it from. "Calm down Houjun."  
  
I wraped the cloth around his eye tightly and tied it. I quickly turned away from him when I felt something come up my throat, my head felt like it was about to explode like a bomb was just set off. A hurtful cough came out and I squeezed my eyes shut, but after, the pain in my head went away a little. I opened my eyes and saw a pool of blood in front of me.  
  
"We need to find help, I don't know if the bleeding will stop from your eye." I said very weakly.  
  
Houjun riped a part of his own clothing off and wrapped it around my arm. "Your more hurt than I am, you should be more concerned for yourself." He picked me up as the I felt the wind starting to clam and the rain starting to slow down. Houjun and I were the only surviving of the flood....  
  
~*~*~*~*~  
  
It's a depressing start and I'm just added some things of my own as a dam and the time when Kouran broke off the marrage was different because Kibou was there. Anyway, please tell me what you thoughtt of it and if you would like me to continue. And it's two thirty in the freakin morning, I'm freakin tired! Review! ^^  
  
~*Cosmicmoon 


	2. Chapter 2: Seperate ways

Thank you for the nice reveiws. ^_^ They weren't that many but it inspired me to write another chapter. My friends who read it didn't say much about it, it was just another chapter to them. I've written 4 chapters to that story, but, I need to change it around so it mainly focuses on Chiriko. I did have another character for Mitsukake and that person who was going to be a girl would've been with Tasuki and stuff but hey, it annoys people when there's too many new characters (I only say that because of me..since it gets confusing when it's too many. One or two is enough.........^^;;)  
  
~*~*~*~*~  
Chapter 2: Seperate ways  
~*~*~*~*~  
  
Houjun got his eye bandanged up while the doctors badanged up my arm. The doctor told me that I wouldn't be able to use my left arm again, all I could do is move it, and even though I could do that, I can't pick anything up, I could only move it. Houjun's eye would never be able to be healed so he had lost left eye. Shouryuu had become a lake, the town was under it about 100 feet. So at the top was nothing but ruins of the buildings, but really, there was nothing, everything was gone. Houjun and I returned to that lake which the near by town named Shouryuu Memorial Lake. We set up a cross for each soul lost, after, Houjun just stared at the lake after I put down the last cross. I came and sat next to him.  
  
"My whole family..." he muttered. "Kouran, Hikou....They're all gone...just like that...Just like that."  
  
Tears streamed down his face. I couldn't do anything...I didn't know what to do, nothing that I could recall like that ever happened to me. Another vision then eveloped me, that girl she was pushed into a wall, she looked up to the attacker, a male, he in a way looked like her, and he looked familiar....but I couldn't say why..Everything around my blured and I was being shook by Houjun. "You ok, Kibou?"  
  
I blinked and my vision came back to normal. "Huh?..Uh, yeah, I'm ok..."  
  
His eyes were red and tears still streamed freshly down. "Are you sure?"  
  
"Yeah..I'm ok."  
  
"Come on, lets get going, your probably hungry, you haven't eaten in a while." he said wiping away the tears.  
  
"Well, I don't want to-" my stomache growled loudly that it was obvious to Houjun, it lasted about 15 seconds or so, Houjun chuckled. "Come on."  
  
He helped me up and we headed back to town. He bought me something to eat that I chose that didn't seem like it was very expensive. Afterwards we started to walk in to the forest, he or I weren't sure where we were going, but he was leading.  
  
"Thank you." he said not looking back at me.  
  
"Huh? You don't have to thank me, I didn't do anything." I said looking down at my feet.  
  
"Thanks for helping me and you risked your life to save Kouran as well as me...Thank you..."  
  
I stayed silent and caught up to walk beside him. Houjun didn't speal either, we were both silent. "H-how did she die?" he finally said after I saw that he was going to many times.  
  
I looked to him a bit shocked, that the subject actually came up. "U-um...After I talked to her, a vision came to me that a dam broke so I took her to a higher land, but she triped...I could only hold on so long before a rock hit me and I was forced to let go...she died because of me..I'm sorry." I didn't want to tell him anything else, as her last words, I wasn't sure why at the time.   
  
"It wasn't your fault, you helped her live a little longer. You lost your memory, woke up in an unknown place to two strangers, and you were willing to help even though you didn't feel well and you even risked your life. I'm the one that killed someone."  
  
I shook my head. "No, the same thing that happened to me, happened to you. It wasn't you, it was the damn flood, but....It was probably all fate."  
  
We kept walking untill we came to another town, it was a small peaceful town, like what Shouryuu seemed to be like. The people looked peaceful as well. We passed a temple in which a monk stood and greeted us. The monk invited us in and so we went in. There were many meditating monks and other things that would relax the mind. Another man came up to us. "Good afternoon sir, madam. What brings you to this temple?"  
  
"We're just looking around." I answered.  
  
"What happened to your eye, good sir?"  
  
"I lost it in a flood that occured a week ago."  
  
"In Shouryuu? Ah yes, is this young lady a younger sister or friend of yours." he asked now looking to me which freaked me out since his eyes, his pupils were small and looked like vampire eyes. He had this creepy vibe from him, but it was still good.   
  
"She's a friend...I was just wondering, would I be able to learn the way of these monks?"  
  
The monk looked back to Houjun. "Of course, but we are wandering monks, most of us, we come and go, but if you wish, we will teach you the ways of a monk."  
  
"Houjun?"  
  
He looked to me and smiled. "I think this'll be able to help me..In some way or another.."  
  
I nodded. "If that's what you want, I'll leave you at that. I hope you get better."  
  
"Where will you go?"  
  
"I'm going to try to find out who I am. I don't know where I'll start but I'll just travel around, I'm sure that someone will reconize me someday." I said heading out. "But when I do find myself, I'll look for you."  
  
He smiled and came next to me, lifted my hand and put a ring into it. "I'll try to find you someday too."  
  
"Promise to meet each other again?" I asked.  
  
He nodded. "This will be the symbol of it. It'll be a way to reconize each other in case we look different when we see each other again."  
  
"Yeah, I may find some answers some day...but till then, I'll see you again Houjun."  
  
"And I'll see you again, good bye, Kibou....but take this with you, too."  
  
He handed me the money he had left. "You may need it."  
  
"Thanks."  
  
~*~*~*~  
  
I left the city and I already felt lost. I traveled through the forest, still feeling lost, I put the ring on my finger and looked at it, a clean cut diamond with the ring being solid gold. It was beautiful and I feel sorry for houjun that he lost Kouran like that. I wish I had memories to trace back to..I sighed and bowed my head down and kept walking. I closed my eyes for a bit but then another memory came to me. A girl, two of them, they were in strange clothes, they looked familiar, one girl had short blonde wearing this brown clothing that was a short dress, and she wore a jacket that was up to her chest but the sleeves were long. The socks were up to her knees and she wore black shoes. The other girl, she wore the same thing, she had brown hair that was up in two buns. They were talking to the girl I kept seeing, but she wore a different suit. One with a short skirt and a tie. I could tell that she was older than them. That vision blacked out and two names came to my lips, Miaka and Yui. Miaka belongs to the girl with the brown hair and Yui belonged to the girl with the blonde....The other girl, it must be me. I always get one vision whenever I try to trace back, but they didn't peice together very well. I came back too reality and saw that was being carried by a woman, an old woman who had long, nice white hair, blue eyes, a long face that showed that she was beautiful when she was younger and there weren't many wrinkles on her face.  
  
"Are you ok?" she asked. "You ran into me and just fainted."  
  
"Oh, I'm so sorry ma'am. I don't know what came over me." I said as she let me down.   
  
"What's your name child?"  
  
"I'm Kibou."  
  
"Kibou? Is that it?"  
  
"It seemed that I lost my memory a week ago, I still haven't gotten it back."  
  
"Where are you headed?"  
  
"I don't know." I said bluntly  
  
She looked at me strangely. "You can stay with me child, if you want. I'm Toroki, I am actually a Byakko seishi."  
  
"Seishi?" Seishi...that sounds so familiar. a voice started to talk in my head, as if reading: "...Chiriko, the seishi with the power of knowlegde..."  
  
"Who is Chiriko...and what is a seishi?"  
  
She looked at me a bit strangly. "You've never heard of it, ah! That's right, you've lost your memory, I'm sorry dear, a seishi is a warrior that protects the preistess of whichever gor of the north, south, east, and west...Chiriko...lets see..ah, Chiriko is a seishi of Suzaku, why do you ask?"  
  
I shrugged. "It's just...I'm not sure."  
  
"Well, I can see why, if your trying to hide it child, it's not working, you have a symbol on your foot." she said chuckling.  
  
"Huh?" I looked down at my foot, a red symbol shone brightly upon it. "Wow...That's weird."  
  
She smiled. We came into a city which another small town. I kept up next to her, she looked down and saw my hand and the ring on it. "Are you engaged, child?"  
  
I shook my head. "This is a symbol of a promise that we'll see each other again." I said looking at my hand.  
  
"And who's that?"  
  
"Houjun, I just met him, but he helped me before the flood, after I lost my memory, now he's staying with some monks, since he lost his family, his best friend, and fiance`. The monks will probably help him clear his mind."  
  
She nodded and was silent the rest of the way. We stoped at a gigantic house that looked like a school for martial arts. She opened the door. Inside, there were many boys and men in there practicing with swords. We went past them and went up a flight of stairs where it led to a living area, there was a nice aroma of something cooking from the kitchen and there were many decorations around. "Go ahead and sit down dear." she said pulling up a chair from a table that was near me.  
  
"Thank you for taking me in."  
  
"Not at all, it's actually very lonely just by myself. Do you know martial arts dear?"  
  
I shook my head. "Never learned any, or any that I know of."  
  
"It might be useful when the preistess of Suzaku comes around. You'll have to protect her, I'll train you, unless you want to keep searching for yourself." She said pulling up a chair across from me.  
  
"I may find that out someday, but this'll be useful to the future.....But, I can't ever pay you back."  
  
"I told you, it's nothing, it'll be nice to have another female around as company, I haven't had an aprentice in so long, it'll be nice. I'll get you some clothes, child. Those clothes are a bit torn up."  
  
I looked down at my clothes, my left sleeve torn with my right sleeve still there, and the clothes torn in many places as around the stomache where the rock hit me."  
  
She got up and went into a room that was down a hallway. She came back out with en entire wardrobe. A robe like outfit that was blue with a red belt, there was a symbol on the back, but I couldn't read it, white knee highs and black shoes. I changed into the quickly in a room that she led me to that was a pretty normal sized room. Toroki told me that this was going to be my room. I went back out and Toroki had broght out a bowl of soup and set it down. I ate it silently and Toroki only stared at me, she then got up and went to probably get something. She came back and set a sword down on the table. The design was a pheonix, a small one in the middle with the wings circling the sword and by the bird on it's left and right came two points. The handle was black and there were two red a ribbon tied at the end.  
  
"This sword has the god Suzaku on it, there are only so many with this design. This will be yours, I will teach you how to fight with this as well as hand to hand combat."  
  
"But." I looked down at my left arm. "I only have one arm that can be useful....I lost it in the flood."  
  
She inpected the pale arm. "That's fine, you can still be taught, you'll have disadvantages, but you'll be as good if not better as the rest of the students at this school. When do you want to start?"  
  
"Tommarrow I guess...Thank you, Toroki."  
  
She nodded. "Eat up, you'll need your strength."  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Ok, it's a short chapter and I'm sorry, I write too many short chapters. I proof read!....sort of....I might've still missed stuff. Thank you Otaku Pitcher for pointing out my editing, which still sucks. ^^;;  
  
~*CosmicMoon 


	3. Chapter 3: Toroki's Training

Otaku Pitcher, ok, Toroki stayed close with Tokaki and Subaru so yeah, I guess that would make sense. And I don't use microsoft word because.....You know, I don't know, I correct every error I can on my own, I usually correct all of them, after about reading through it the 5th time, every time I find at least one or two errors ^^;; and Houjun.....I think I'll just wait till maybe chapter 5, because the next chapter.....um yeah....  
  
And a note to my friends......You probably reconized the first chapter..so yeah, I hope your actually reading this. I didn't feel like writing the self inserted stories with us in it, I got sick of them. Just felt like writing something a bit different. I have written normal somewhat like fanfiction in a long time. Of course most of them are SailorMoon/Dragon Ball Z but hey, it doesn't matter....just some of them suck really badly.  
  
~*~*~*~*~  
Chapter 3: Toroki's Training  
~*~*~*~*~  
  
I woke up the next day pretty early. I don't think Toroki was awake yet, once I went outside the room, again, the house was filled with an aroma of food. I went to the kitchen area and Toroki was setting the table. "Thought you'd be awake around this time."  
  
I sat down in the spot that I sat at yesterday. She set down some silverware and then sat down herself to eat herself. "I invited some people over to help you train as well."  
  
"Who's that?"  
  
"Tokaki and Subaru, other Byakko seishi, they're bringing along an aprentice of their own, a Suzaku seishi like yourself, his name is Tamahome. He's about 12 years old, but he's still a good fighter, you could probably train with him."  
  
There was a knock at the door and Toroki went to open it. There stood an old man, woman, and little boy, the little boy definatly didn't look like their son, he had dark aqua hair that was put back in a low ponytail, blue eyes, and wore a dark GI. They came in and were introduced to me. "Hi, I'm Kibou." I said bowinng a bit, as if it had been a habbit somehow.  
  
"Kibou dear, this is Subaru, and Tokaki...And of course their apprentice Tamahome."  
  
The little boy bowed slightly. Toroki asked to to clear the table so I did and Tamahome helped me and helped me wash the dishes. "So where do you live?" I asked scrubbing the plate.  
  
"Just outside the capital of Konan."  
  
"What are you doing way out here in Sairou?" I asked handing him the plate.  
  
"My father wanted me to do this, but I'm going back in a month or two though, my mother is going to have another baby soon."  
  
"How many siblings do you have?"  
  
"Three right now, I'm the oldest of all of them."  
  
I nodded. "Is Tamahome your real name? Isn't that of the constellation?"  
  
"Yeah, I'm called Tamahome, but my real name is Sou Kishukun. Subaru said that the Preistess of Suzaku will find the suzaku seishi by their Seishi name, so they call me Tamahome so I'll get use to it."  
  
"Oh, then let me reintroduce myself. I'm Chiriko."  
  
I put the last dish away and went back out to the dining room. Toroki came to me. "Your going to start your training today. And because of your arm, you'll need a handicap, and Tamahome, he was a born fighter, but he'll be a good sparring partner."  
  
We went down to the room that I had entered through yesterday, it was empty now. Toroki went over to a closet and brought out staffs amd threw one to Tamahome and me. Tokaki and Sabaru soon came down and said that they will leave Tamahome here for now and return later for him.  
  
The training was simple and Tamahome looked bored. It wasn't too hard to learn...It seemed I learned it from somewhere else, but the whole day, Toroki taught me how to use a sword skillfully with just one hand and it progressed really far, something that would take months to get perfect. I didn't get why I was learning so fast. Tamahome wasn't as bored because he seemed to be intrested in what I was doing because I was learning so quickly. When Toroki said that we should rest, I was sweating and my head hurt, Toroki went upstairs to get me some water. Tamahome came up to me. "That's amazing, your learning everything so quickly, are you sure you never learned this."  
  
I shrugged. "I wouldn't know, I lost my memory. And what I do remember, makes no sense."  
  
"Oh...Well that explains why your doing so well... You probably learned all this before you lost your memory and your minds probably just being refreshed."  
  
"Probably, that's what it feels like."  
  
Toroki came back down with a pitcher of water and I probably drank half the thing and I got a brain freeze. I wobbled around dizzily for a second, another vision was suddenly in my mind. The girl..me, she was talking to a girl with brown hair and tan skin, she didn't look asian though....american...was that what she was? What was that anyway? and me, I was crying....why was I crying? Was is it because of that one man that hit her? "...riko...Chiriko!"  
  
I blinked and saw Tamahome shaking me. "Are you ok?"  
  
I held my head a bit dizzy, Toroki looked at me worridly. "You shouldn't drink cold things too fast dear,"  
  
"What? Oh....I'm ok."  
  
"What happened anyway, you just suddenly dazed out," said Tamahome.  
  
"I had another vision of my past,"  
  
"I think that's enough for one day, dear. I'll fix up dinner."  
  
I nodded and followed her up and Tamahome came with us.   
  
~*3 years later*~  
  
Tamahome left a couple months after he met me, and never did come back, I heard that his mother died from giving birth to the baby. That must've been hard on Tamahome, but it must've been hard on everyone in his family as well. My memory was still a blur and I couldn't puzzle everything together. Toroki was getting more aged looking, Subaru and Tokaki hadn't been coming around for a while, and she was starting to get sick. She had to be bedridden and couldn't do anything. I could tell that she was willing to die at any time now. I stayed at her side and did whatever I needed to to help her. I held her hand by her bed and sat on the ground. She was weak, very weak. She felt fragile, like the slightest mistake or hard movement will snap her in half. She was 108 now, so I could see why she was so weak. Her breathing was getting softer and softer day by day.  
  
I felt helpless as she kept dying more and more. I could see the bone in her skin, it no longer looked like Toroki. The person who lied in the bed was a living skeleton. That was all that lied there, a skeleton.  
  
"Kibou dear..." she whispered softly.  
  
My head poped up and I looked at her. "Kibou, you were the daughter that I never had...."  
  
Tears bleared my eyes. "Toroki, save your strength, please."  
  
"I'm going to die anyway, I'll say this while I'm still alive. I don't know when you may find yourself, but what goes on now is what's important, go to Taikyoku, Taiitskun is waiting for you."  
  
I slightly tightened my grip on her hand. "Toroki..."  
  
"Your future lies there. Leave me in this bed to die, you should leave to Taikyoku. Your wasting your time."  
  
My fingers clenched the blanket. "Don't say that, if I left, I would feel guilty forever."  
  
"You were the perfect apprentice, you've learned everything I knew and even more. Thank you."  
  
Her hand fell dropped to her side and the feel of life from her presence suddenly drained and a horrible chill went throughout my body. I buried my head in her blanket, her body already felt so cold. I started to make a whole in her house's backyard for Toroki. It felt like she was still there, she still looked the same and everything...I wiped away the tears after I buried her and packed what I needed. I then came back to her graveyard with a small boucae of flowers and set it down by her grave.  
  
"Thank you Toroki....You taught me so much and you didn't even have to, may your soul rest in peace."  
  
I bowed down and then got up, I stared at the grave for a bit and then headed east towards where Taikyoku would be. It didn't seem to take too long before I got there though, actually, it seemed to just appear out of really no where. And a person who I belive was Taiisukun was there to meet me.  
  
"I've been excepting you." she said approaching me.  
  
"Are you Taiitsukun?"  
  
She nodded. "For the next three years you will be training under me."  
  
The floor under me suddenly rose and I lifted off the ground. "Holy shit, what the hell?!  
  
We landed in a palace high in the mountain. "You will also have another person to train with." Taiitsukun said as she led me inside. Once we were inside, she introduced me to the person who I haven't seen yet.  
  
"His name is Chichiri."  
  
I don't know where exactly it was, it was some sort of throne room place that the person was, and the person's back was turned. He wore a kasa and had a familiar shade of blue hair. For a moment I thought it was Houjun but when he turned around, it wasn't his face. I got closer up to him to introduce myself, I relized that his face was a mask, but I didn't say anything about it. "Hi, I'm Chiriko."  
  
I looked down to his hand and saw a small ring on it, I lifted the hand up and I instantly reconized the design. "Houjun?"  
  
I got out my ring that I wore as a necklace since I was afraid to lose it. "I found you again, it's me Kibou!"  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Yet another short chapter...................................................I might write a longer one the next chapter. And it was kinda quick, like Kibou meeting Toroki...then Toroki dying, but oh well..........I just wanted the story to move along, please reveiw.  
  
~*CosmicMoon 


	4. Chapter 4: Taiitsukun's training

Sorry it took me so long to get this out. It seems the only person who likes this story or so it seems, is Otaku Pitcher, I mean I do have other reviewers, but Otaku was the first and yeah, that was probably the only reason I'm still writing more for this story, and I like it a bit. ^^ I think I'll make the next chapter in Houjun's PoV. And this chapter shows more of Chiriko's real personality. Since the last few was just getting everything together and stuff, this chapter shows more of her normal personality. And also, I'm deleting A change of Heart because what I was going to do in the future something with it, but I'm deciding to do it in this story.  
  
~*~*~*~  
Chapter 4: Taiitsukun's training  
~*~*~*~   
  
Houjun took his mask off and the same scar was still across his eye but his face had matured a bit. I back away from him and smiled. "Look at you, everything's changed about you!"  
  
"Same as you, Kibou." Houjun said chuckling. "You've gotten much more beautiful as well, no da."  
  
I laughed. "So what, I was ugly when I was eighteen?"  
  
"I'm sorry to interupt your reunion, but I will now explain how this will work. Chiriko, Chichiri, both of you will train together and both of you will be granted a special power to use the magic that I will grant you." said Taiitsukun.  
  
Then she waved her hands and two mirrors appeared, from them, two red lights emerged and went strait to a certain part. The red light that struck me hit my foot where my symbol was and Houjun's hit his knee, I wasn't sure why. When the red light disapeared, I then relized something, Chichiri was a constellation name....That means that Houjun is a Suzaku seishi! At least there's two people I know of who are part of the Suzaku Seishi. "The method to learn my magic is simple, but it takes time to get it perfect. You must be patient, and I know both of you are, that is why I selected the two of you. In estimation, I believe that you'll both complete your training in three years. So do you understand?"  
  
We both nodded at the same time. "Nyan Nyan." Taiisukun said as if calling out.  
  
Bubbles then poped up and then four little girls with blue hair wearing cute little dress appeared, they all looked the same. "Nyan Nyan!" they all piped at the same time.  
  
"Nyan Nyan, show the two of them to their rooms."  
  
"Yes ma'am!"  
  
The little girls flew out of the room and indicated for us to follow, so we did. They led us down a hallway and finally to two doors near each other, two of them opened one that was to the right door and two of them opened the other, the two that opened the right side door pulled me into it. "Found my room, guessin the other one's yours."  
  
Once I was inside, the room looked like it would never end, I looked to the side and saw Houjun. "Is there no wall or something?"  
  
He shrugged. "Oh well, at least there's two beds, no da."  
  
"I guess...What's up with the "no da" thing anyway?"  
  
"Something I just picked up, no da."  
  
"Ya know Houjun, your voice was alot deeper when I first met you, did you go backwards in puberty?"   
  
"Nah." he said in a slightly deeper voice, I jumped at the sudden change of voice. "This is my normal voice."  
  
I was confused by why he would use such a high voice, but I didn't ask. It surprised me he that he could use a high voice and it actually looked normal. Houjun, when he put his mask back on, looked younger than he was suppose to be, which was a bit strange, the mask just sorta seemed to change him. With his mask on, I could feel joy from him and everything, but when it's off, I could still see the same broken man that I left 3 years ago.  
  
"So what did you do after you left, have you regained your memory, no da?"  
  
I shook my head. "Still pretty much a blur, when I first met you, I had quite a few a day, but then it slowed down alot over the last three years. I still don't have a clue. But two girls, Yui and Miaka, I remember them, yet I don't, I think they were friends, but I'm not sure. None of these visions make sense. And after I left, I did have another vision, but seemed to have fainted, that's when I met Toroki, who took me in for 3 years and trained me to protect the Preistess of Suzaku, how've you been?"  
  
"I haven't been doing much, no da. Just wandering around, I learned a bit of magic from the monks so I could do quite a bit, no da."  
  
"Wow, that's pretty nice, to know magic, guess you'll be learning more here."  
  
"Yeah, we should be getting rest, no da. Have strength for tommarrow, no da."  
  
I took my bag off my back and put it one the bed. "Houjun, don't turn around please, I had to share a room with Tamahome, and it wasn't fun, he kept turning around.....that little pervert, I'll get him when I meet him again...but please stay turned around and I trust you for now." I said getting out the clothes that I wore to sleep, which was just a robe. I turned my head back slightly to Houjun and his back was turned, he was a true gentleman, either that, it's because he's a monk. I took my clothes off and changed into the robe. "Thanks Houjun....and would you rather be called Houjun or Chichiri?"  
  
"It doesn't really matter, no da. I've been called Chichiri for the last 3 years, but just go by whatever your use to."  
  
"Thanks. I'll just start calling you Chichiri, my old trainer told me that the preistess will be looking for us according to the constellation name, so you know, but if your confertable calling me Kibou, I don't mind."  
  
I got under the covers and the lights or whatever they were seemed to suddenly dim and turn dark. "G'night Chichiri."  
  
"Night, na no da." he called back.  
  
~*~*~*~  
  
I felt a sudden cold sensation and instantly relized that my blanket was pulled away and I tried to get it back but I couldn't find it. "Nyan Nyan!" Piped the familiar voice from yesterday.  
  
I looked down to the end of my bed and saw two Nyan Nyan's holding my blanket. "Breakfast time!"  
  
I groaned and saw up, I looked to the side and saw a table with food at it, Chichiri was getting up the same way by the Nyan Nyan. I rubbed my eyes, "What's for breakfast?"  
  
"Whatever you want!" the Nyan Nyan said cheerfully  
  
They got me up and set me down on the bed on started to brush my hair out. "Fixing, fixing!"  
  
They tied it in a braid that went down to my mid back. Then food appeared before me, the exact meal Toroki put down for me everyday that I never asked what it was because it never came up, it was Toroki's special. A soup with egg drops and dumplings in it. I couldn't really see what Chichiri was eating. I was still really tired so I was wobbling a bit, I then picked my spoon up and started to eat. While I ate, my mind seemed to wander and change to another vision of my past.  
  
The girl, that was me, she looked younger as if 13, and she was wearing a different uniform thing. She kneeled down to a little girl with brown hair tied in two buns, Miaka..She was crying and her knee was bleeding. "Come on Miaka, don't cry, it'll get better."  
  
The girl put some kind of medicine on Miaka and then some kind of bandage over it. Miaka stoped crying. "Now you have to promise to be careful, ok?"  
  
Little Miaka nodded. "Go and play with Yui, and be careful."  
  
"Ok ohne-chan!"  
  
My vision came back to normal and my bowl was empty, I blacked out again. Ohne-chan.....Why does that sound so familiar? Was that what they called older girls when you were younger? I looked up and Chichiri was staring at me. "Your still having those visions, no da?"  
  
I nodded. "I just black out for a bit and then I come back. Every time, I have some useless vision about my past."  
  
"So you don't know of your family or anything."  
  
I shook my head. "Still a blur, only friends."  
  
"Nyan Nyan!"  
  
They pulled Chichiri and I up at the same time and led us down the hall to most likey Taiitsukun. They lead us to the place where I met Chichiri yesterday, Taiitsukun was waiting for us in there. "It's about time the two of you woke up, today, we will start your training, and what we'll work on is changing your shape to sound and look like another person."  
  
"Wow, really, that'll be cool! What's the first step?" I asked.  
  
"The first step is to concentrate for a moment on who you want to transform in to, once you get all these steps down, this will become easy to you. Now both of you, close your eyes and concentrate on a certain person whom you want to change into."  
  
I did as she said and I concentrated on turning into Miaka, the girl from my visions. "Now, try to put your lifeforce to that thought and change yourself quickly."  
  
I concentrated my lifeforce to my head, reaching my thoughts to try to turn it into what I wanted to turn into. Clouds of something then surounded me and I felt my body change. I opened my eyes and looked down at myself, I was wearing the clothes of the first time I saw her in my visions, my hair was in two buns. I looked over to where Chichiri was standing and he had changed into Hikou, his best friend. "Excellent, the two of you are doing better than I thought you would."  
  
"This is a bit weird though." I said, hearing that my voice was changed to a higher more childish voice.  
  
"You must get use to it. You may find yourself doing this often in the future."  
  
I changed back into my normal self and so did Chichiri. "Kibou, I will give you something that can help you, and you may learn how to play over time."  
  
The Nyan Nyan brought over in a small pillow, a small....Flute...I knew that's what it was. I picked it up with my right hand. "But, I can't use both hands..."  
  
The Nyan Nyans came over to me and picked my left hand up and started to heal it. When they were done, there was no feeling in my arm, but I could feel the feelings in my fingers, I wasn't sure how that worked out but it did. "Because of your training with Toroki learning how to do one handed sword combat only, I healed your fingers, you should be able to play, but it'll take take to get your left arm up. I gave you this because you will learn how to attack with your life force through the sound of a flute, I have given you the flute because you have had experiance with it."  
  
"...You know of my past?"  
  
"Yes...But that is for you to figure out in the future, for yourself and you will one day, but I will not be the one to tell you. Now, play a song."  
  
"But I---ok." I lifted my left arm up slowly and my right raised with it. I started to play a song that I just somehow knew how to play. "Cradle song" That was the name of it....but I couldn't recall from what it was from. (Cradle song, it's from Escaflowne.) I put down amazed at what I did, I knew what I was doing, as if I had done it for most of my life. "  
  
"Good. Now lets get started, Chichiri, you will stay here and train with me for the next week and Chiriko, go with the Nyan Nyans and they will teach you how to attack with the sound of a flute."  
  
~*One Week later*~  
  
It was my turn to train with Taiisukun but Chichiri stayed with me to train. I had learned how to do everything through the flute in a week, but I still haven't gotten it perfect. We didn't do that much with Taiisukun but after wards, we went to eat dinner in our room. And like it had been, the Nyan Nyans set it for us. Once I was done, I got ready to go to sleep, Chichiri didn't keep much of a conversation up, he was mostly thinking through his own things.. I told Chichiri to turn around as I changed.  
  
"Kibou." A deep voice echoed. My vision suddenly changed and I saw that man again, who was hurting me. "Kibou, what the hell did I tell you about doing that?!"  
  
There was me and I was crouched into the wall, crying, her emotions went through out me and I felt myself crying. "I'm sorry...I didn't mean to.."  
  
"The hell you didn't!" he roared.  
  
The was knocking at a door, when he didn't leave to get it, the person started to pound the door down untill the person could finally get through. It was that one girl, the american, I got a better look at her, blonde hair that wasn't natural, brown eyes, tan skin......she had many men behind her...police men...That's what they were called. I ran to the girl and hugged her, she was crying...Like she was in the vision I had so long ago. The police grabbed the man and put something on his hands so he wouldn't get loose. There was pain going through her body and I could feel it, burises on my body and I was cut some places. The man looked at me with pleading eyes. "Come on baby, you know I didn't mean it, I love you."  
  
I hugged my friend tighter and glared at him. "You always do that, whenever you did, I'd forgive you, but not this time,"  
  
The police pushed him and he struggled. "Kibou, please, you know how I am, Kibou!"  
  
"Beat it Jason." My friend snapped.  
  
"Kibou!!!"  
  
"Kibou!" the voice changed and Chichiri was infront of me. I could feel the tears in my eyes still freshly streaming and the pain easing away. The man..Jason, his voice repeated in my mind, calling my name. "What's wrong? Are you ok?"  
  
"I-I'm ok." I wiped the tears away. "The same thing that always happens to me...I-I'm Ok."  
  
He helped me up. "Are you sure."  
  
I nodded and I sat down on my bed. "Thanks...I'm ok."  
  
He looked at me a bit worriedly. "Are you sure?"  
  
"Yeah." 'I love you.' the voice of Jason said, again repeating in my mind. "I just need some rest."  
  
I layed down and Chichiri put the blanket over me. "Thanks."  
  
"Your welcome, no da. Now, get some rest Chiriko, no da."  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Again, I'm sorry for taking so long, but I made this chapter just slightly longer than other so.....yeah.....  
  
~*CosmicMoon 


	5. Chapter 5: Kutou

That's cool to know your an escaflowne fan Otaku, I love that show, cradle song's my favorite, or one of them, I figured out how to play it on my flute (Yeah I play one^_____^) and so I just had to put it in, yeah... I like write little messages to you on this ^^;; Anyway, for my friends have managed to get this far in the story, yay, you've managed to read through one of my stories I actually like. And the things between Kibou and Ch-ri will come in sometime or another, but it might take a bit. This chapter will stay in Kibou's point of veiw, but it'll switch to Chichiris' to get his perpective on things. And her visions, I deliberatly made her lose her memory so she, as well as the reader would find out who Kibou actually is.  
  
~*~*~*~*~  
Chapter 5: Kutou  
~*~*~*~*~  
  
Our training was complete done in the time that Taiitsukun expected us to be done. 3 years, we had everything nearly perfect and we were both 24 now. Taiitsukun told us that Kutou is on the verge of attacking konan so the Preistess of Suzaku may soon appear. From there, we were let out into the real world of....not really anything. We hung around Kutou to gather information so we can use it in the future if we have to. Chichiri had been trying to keep to himself for the last two years and I couldn't understand why. He barely tried to keep a conversation up and when we did, he didn't want to talk very much or had not much to say about the subject. I was getting a bit agitated with him but I stayed with him, I knew how he was really like, but he was too buried in guilt of his past that he couldn't seem to get over it and I never brought it up since I knew it would make him feel more guilty. I didn't know what to talk to him about, all my visions slowed down after that one, but it was so clear, Jason, his face, his voice, everything, always on my mind and those words always repeating in my heart. I was always spacing out and it worried Houjun when I did, afraid I would faint or something. I didn't know what to think of him...but I guess I thought of him like a brother...or some one I could rely on.  
  
We were wandering around the capital of Kutou, again, thinking of my friend, and Jason..That was untill another vision enveloped me. I was with some man that I knew that I knew, and also the american friend who's name I couldn't recall. We were having dinner, I didn't know what it was though, it seemed foreign. Then I got a better look at the man, he looked similar to me...Could he be my father?   
  
"Kibou, your going to be going back to Japan and you'll be starting in Jonan." the man said bringing up the subject, seemingly out of nowhere.  
  
"What? But dad, I'm too use to America!" I yelled.  
  
My friend stayed silent, trying not to say anything to interfere. "You need to spend more time with you siblings and mother. You are going back to Japan for a couple years and you'll come back after you graduate from Jonan."  
  
"..But, how am I suppose to get into that school? That's one of the most competitive ones around!" I argued back trying to resist to whatever was going on.  
  
"You have a 4.0 in school, you are so far the hardest working in your class and you even ended the year with the award for being most intellectual, how hard can it be?"  
  
I growled and left the table, my friend following, I stormed up a flight of stairs to a room filled with pictures of something. I wasn't quite sure, they looked like fake people..There was also a wall with a couple certificates that said that I had won in state in a flute competition. "This isn't fair! I don't want to leave you Ellyn..Or Jason."  
  
The name of my friend..it was Ellyn..She sighed. "Well, it had to come sooner or later, you haven't seen your mom for years anyway and think of your little sister, you haven't seen her since you were what? 13?"  
  
Little sister? Was that..Miaka? "It can't be too bad, and Jason...I don't understand why your still with him, he's a jerk! You know how many times I saw you with bruises from him?"  
  
I stayed silent. "But I'll mostly miss you." I said changing the subject.  
  
She hugged me. "You'll be back, right?"  
  
"Right after I graduate from High school, I promise I'll get a flight to America, I'll even save up for it now, come back ridin' first class."  
  
Ellyn laughed a bit. "Ok, Promise?" She said holding out her pinky.  
  
I smiled. "Promise." I said wrapping mine around hers.  
  
"Chiriko." Chichiri's voice said fading my vision. It had become more of a normal tone when he noticed me spacing out like I did since he had done it so much.  
  
I blinked. We were still on the streets and I saw that we were going to go into an inn. He lead me in and paid for a room for us.  
  
~*~*~  
(Chichiri's PoV)  
  
I told Chiriko to go upstairs to the room that the man at the counter told us to, I said I would be up in a bit. "That's a fine woman you got there, ya married to her?"  
  
I looked to him, this had been asked alot by the inn keepers, and to keep her safe, I always answered the same. "Yeah, we've been traveling for a bit, no da. But we may settle sooner or later with a place."  
  
"Yeah..I gave ya' a nice room too, just in case, ya know.." he sort of winked at me.  
  
I sighed, and went upstairs with a small dinner. Chiriko was in there sitting in a chair, staring out the window. She sniffed the air and then turned around. I chuckled. "You always know when food's around, don't you no da?"  
  
She smiled and came over to me. "Thanks Chichiri."  
  
She split the dinner that was just suppose to be for her with me, though I wasn't that hungry, I ate the share that she had given me. "You certainly chose a nice room for us." she said getting up after she was finished.  
  
"The inn keeper wanted us to have this room."  
  
She looked to the bed. "One bed..How nice."  
  
"I'll sleep on the floor, no da." I volenteered.  
  
She looked at me a bit strangly. "Do you see the size of this bed? It'll fit Taiitsukun, two Nyan Nyans, and the both of us comfertably! We can share for tonight, I don't mind as long as you don't."  
  
"Ok, I don't mind, no da."  
  
I turned around as she changed and then I did too. All I did was really just taking off my shoes. She shivered and curled up in the left side of the bed. I layed down in the right. "Night Chi-ri."  
  
"Night Chiriko."  
  
She blew out the candle and it seemed that she fell asleep almost instantly. I couldn't sleep so I sat up again. "Jason.." she whispered.  
  
She had so many visions, and always talked like that in her sleep. She didn't seem to go one day with out having a small vision. She was still clueless about her past, but always seemed to ponder through what she did know. And while we were training at Taikyoku, Chiriko kept trying to keep a conversation or something like that up, but she could never get very far since I was afraid to fall in love with her. It would go against my ways and the same thing might happen again if I loved her and she loved me back, as in having her die in some way or just be broken hearted again. I was afraid to even try to fall in love with her, and I couldn't even keep a conversation up, and I saw that she stoped trying too hard. She just carried on breif conversations with and either went to sleep or just sat there. I yawned so I layed back down. I stoped thinking about it and closed my eyes and tried to go to sleep.  
  
~*~*~*~  
  
The next morning, Chiriko wanted to explore the town a bit. "Are you sure you'll be alright, no da?"  
  
She nodded. "Yeah, I'll be fine. I could protect myself, you think I trained with Toroki for nothing?"  
  
She waved to me and headed a seperate direction. I did nothing around the town, I sat in a resteraunt and waited for Chiriko to come back since I had nbothing to do so might as well wait for her.  
  
"I heard from the palace, well, my friend who's a guard there..." I listened to the man who was near me. "He said that he heard the general Nakago say that there are Suzaku warriors in town."  
  
"Really? Damn them, they'll probably kill us all, they'll probably start that damn war!"  
  
"Yeah, I know what you mean. I also heard he's looking for them."  
  
I got up to pay my bill after that, I went out to look for Chiriko, knowing her, she might space out and get captured. And this Nakago, he'll probably kill her. I tried to sense her, but since I always worried for her and I always did that, she tried to hide from me, it had been several hours since we seperated and I knew she would be anywhere by now. I heard a distant scream that sounded familiar and a chill went down my spine.  
  
"Houjun!!" a voice echoed through my mind from nowhere, it was Chiriko's voice and she was hurt! I tried to sense and I could now, but it seemed faint. I ran to it as fast as I could, I came to a small alley and I saw horses with a person running away from it, I ran into the alley and Chiriko layed sprawled across the floor half naked, cuts and everything all around her. She was trying to reach for her sword but couldn't and her flute was snaped in half. She was just barely consious when she saw me. "Kibou! Kibou!"  
  
I took my kesa (that's what the cape thing's called, right?) off and wrapped it around her. "Kibou, are you alright?"  
  
She opened her eyes just barely. "Houjun, I knew you'd come, I'm sorry I should've listened to you, sorry..The general Nakago...He tried to kill me..."  
  
"Kibou, are you hurt?"  
  
She shook her head. "No, I'll be fine, sorry Houjun."  
  
She fainted the next moment. We weren't safe in Kutou anymore, I knew Kibou would want to wander around more if she stayed here, it was time to return to Konan. I got a horse from the inn keeper from last night.  
  
"Now, be careful, and whenever your in Kutou, stop by here. I'd like to see that young wife of yours again and I hope she gets better." he said as I left out the door.  
  
We left at night and it was a long trip, it took 2 days to get there. Chiriko finally woke up on the 2nd day.  
  
"Chichiri?" I looked down to her, she was infront of me on the horse so she looked up to me. "Where are we?"  
  
"We're back in Konan."  
  
"Konan? Where are we going in Konan."  
  
"To the capital."  
  
She looked down and layed back against me. "Thanks Chichiri."  
  
I felt her fall asleep again. Once we reached the capital, she woke up again. She looked around and smiled. "Wow, I've never been in the capital before!...Chichiri, since we're out of Kutou, can I stay in the capital for a while?"  
  
"Well, I don't really-"  
  
"Don't worry, there's only a bunch of street thugs and not anyone like Nakago."  
  
She got off the horse and stretched. "Chiriko, what happened when Nakago.."  
  
"He's the country's general, he was following me untill I took a wrong turn, he attacked me then, it a blur but I remember I tried to reach you through telekenisis, I guess it worked."  
  
"You sure you'll be ok?"  
  
She nodded. "Of course! I said this last time, but now I'll be more alert."  
  
"Alright, no da. I'm going to go around Kutou and other places for a while to try to get more information, and I'm pretty sure the preistess of Suzaku will find you, or I'll try to when she finds me."  
  
"Ok, then I'll see you then."  
  
I turned the horse and she waved from there, we went our seperate ways again.  
  
~*~*~*~*~  
  
Sorry, it's a short chapter, next one I promis will be longer, it's just that I wrote this at a friend's house and I wanted to get it done, so yeah...Please reveiw. ^^  
  
~*CosmicMoon 


	6. Chapter 6: During the separation

Yeah, I really rushed that, I didn't mean to, I just wanted to get that finished since I didn't have a floppy disk with me so I didn't know when I would go back there and I was too stupid to relize that I could've emailed it to myself but hey, that's just the way my brain works...I just relized that I could've emailed it to myself....Why do I always think through things when it's too late......Also I've rushed through this story to show much of Kibou's real personality, sorry, it was from this point I was going to do something, sorry... Also I had been working on this chapter for the longest time, so I tried to make it long, or as long as I could.  
  
Meh.....  
  
~*~*~*~  
Chapter 6: During the separation  
~*~*~*~  
  
(Kibou's PoV)  
  
I wandered around the town bored out of my mind. It had been....5 minutes since Chichiri left and I was bored as hell. I didn't know anything of where anything was in Konan because I had only been in freakin' Shouryuu and then the town that I never asked the name of, most of those kind of things never came up between Toroki and I. I walked around the crowded streets, then it came to me again that he had stolen it...that bastard Nakago stole the ring that Chichiri gave me. I thought back to when I was roaming around Kutou.  
  
I wanted to see if any girls stumbled upon the slum area of town so they wouldn't get raped or something, that was when I ran into that bastard. I bumped into him or his horse and fell backwards. I got up quickly and dusted off my dress. "That wasn't too hard, I thought I sensed a Suzaku warrior, what is your purpose in my country?"  
  
I kept my hand close to my sword. "Nothing, I'm just visiting."  
  
"Do you think I'm going to believe that?!" He got off his horse and brought out his whip.  
  
I drew my sword and put my left arm behind my back and sighed. "What do you expect to hear then? I came to your country to assasinate your emperor?"  
  
He snapped the whip at me and I jumped away. "Don't you dare mock me! So you have any idea who I am?!"  
  
"Blonde man with a whip and a big ego problem?"  
  
He snapped it at me again. "I am the general of this country, Nakago."  
  
I saw a blue symbol shining on his forehead. "Your also a Seiryu Seishi."  
  
The symbol suddenly shined brighter and that knocked me into a far wall in an alley. I couldn't move from the wall that I was crushing against. Nakago walked to me and brought the end of the whip to my chin and lifted it up. "You have quite a mouth for a lady. You should be more polite!" He whiped me at my side which cut my belt. My sword and my flute droped and my dress was untied. He snaped my flute in half when he steped on it.   
  
I gasped. "You...You..."  
  
He laughed. "What? I broke your toy, so what."  
  
I struggled to get loose. "Taiitsukun gave me that you bastard!!"  
  
I mangaged to get my right arm loose and I slaped him with it. He frowned and whiped me again. I screamed in pain, then he snatched the necklace with Chichiri's ring on it off from around my neck. He inpected the ring. "An engagement ring, anazing that you don't wear it around your finger."  
  
My right arm crashed back into the wall, with not too much strength, since it seemed that his power was draining my energy, I spat at him. He clutched the ring amd glared at me. "So long for letting you off easy. I'll take this with me."  
  
He the raised his whip and I closed my eyes, I wished that Chichiri was here..I was hoping that he'd be here soon. "HOUJUN!!" I screamed and I was let down to the ground and I fell unconsious.  
  
That bastard...I swear I'll kill him. I was too lost in my own train of thoughts that I ran into someone. I stumbled backwards but I caught my balance before I hit the floor. I looked at who I bumped into to apologize, but I didn't, I reconized him right off the batt. "Tamahome!"  
  
"Who are yo--Chiriko?"  
  
I smiled. "Look at how much you grew!"  
  
"Look at how much you.....didn't grow.."  
  
I frowned. "Hey, come on, I changed a bit.... anyway, how have you been? I haven't seen you since you were 12!..How's your family?"  
  
"They're fine actually...And, what happened to you, your clothes are a bit torn up."  
  
I covered the spots I could up quickly. "It's nothing."  
  
"Come on, you can come to my house for a bit, I'll get you some new clothes, and by the looks of it, you still wear the same size as Gyokuran."  
  
"Wasn't that the oldest girl?" I asked as he started to lead me out of the town. He nodded laughing a bit. Then I got his joke and hit him in the back of the head. "You know what, shut up Tamahome!"  
  
Tamahome cracked up laughing. "Your pretty slow."  
  
We came to a small house in a town outside of the capital. "Dad, I'm home, Gyokuran, Chuei, Yuiren, Shunkei!"  
  
Four little children came running out to meet their brother. The youngest one I knew instantly, Tamahome said if it was a girl they would name her Yuiren, if it was a boy...I couldn't remember, but the youngest was infact the smallest.  
  
Yuiren came up to me and smiled. "Are you my big brother's wife?"  
  
I kneeled down to her. "No dear, I'm too much older than him to be his wife, besides, who would want to be married to HIM." I said turning and glaring at him.  
  
"Oh come on, you still haven't forgiven me about that? I saw you ONCE!"  
  
My jaw dropped. "No, it's more like about 10 times ya little perv!"  
  
The oldest girl, Gyokuran came up to me, "I could sew that back up for you." she said looking at the tears on my dress. "Thank you, your Gyokuran, right?"  
  
She nodded. "I thought so." I turned to the two boys. There was the smaller one and the one that was the oldest of the four. "And your Shunkei and Chuei."  
  
"Nice to finally meet all of you, I'm Chiriko."  
  
I saw a man in a bedroom, I went in there and figured that it was his father. I bowed in respect when I saw him. "I'm Kibou, but I am to be called Chiriko, nice to meet you, I trained with your son when he was a child."  
  
He smiled. "So you were the one who my son talked about, I see. So nice of you to come by."  
  
"You seem sickly sir,"  
  
He nodded. "Yes, I have been sick for several weeks and my son has taken care of the family and getting money do we can survive."  
  
"Untill the Suzaku no Miko arrives, I can't go anywhere, so if you'll be so kind--"  
  
"Of course." He started coughing.  
  
"Thank you, sir, I am in your debt, so I'll cook--no I can't do that--I'll make money for the family as well. Your sickness, I'll try to find out how to cure it."  
  
"Thank you."  
  
I walked out of that room and Tamahome was glaring at me. "It's pay back time Tama, 10 times, oh, I'm gonna get you back."  
  
~*~*~*~  
  
(Chichiri's PoV)  
  
She was afully silent when I left her. I'm surprised she would want to be left alone like that after what happened to her, I slowed the horse down to a walking speed, I was in no hurry. I soon relized what Kibou left behind, her broken flute. The gift she received from Taiitsukun, she treasured it since the moment she received it, and the heartless general snapped it. There was no way that I could fix this properly, but I could make another one for her. It wouldn't be as good as the one Taiitsukun gave her, but it'll be something. I walked around the forest untill I came to a part with bamboo around it. I snapped one of them and cut it the length that it had to be.   
  
She would probably have wanted a flute from somewhere anyway. While that man, Nakago, rode away, I saw the ring around his neck, the ring I had given Kibou. I knew she wanted to get away from me because of it, but I felt a little uneasy leaving her in the capital of a country that she had never really been in much. I knew I would see her again, but I didn't know when though, hopefull she finds someone like she did Toroki, but that was just a coincedence, I don't know if something like that may happen again.  
  
"Chichiri.."  
  
I looked around, I could've sworn that was Kibou....There wasn't anyone there...Now I'm so use to her I'm hearing her... So far I can't get her off my mind, 3 years I've been around her this is how much I was use to her.  
  
~*~  
(Kibou's PoV)  
  
I went into the city to see what I could've been doing around town to make some money. I wonder when I would be able to see Houjun again, now that we're going to be in two seperate countries, when will I see him again? Tamahome was somewhere in the city, we seperated when we came back to the capital. There was nothing to do around here, it was boring since I didn't know what to do. I small picture caught my eye, it was a small art shop, selling many paintings and beaded work. The picture that caught my eye was a small, not picture, but statue of Suzaku, it looked pure gold. I knelt down to get a better look at it.  
  
"Can I help you ma'am?" asked the shopkeeper, who was an aged old woman who looked very frail but her hands, I could tell she made most of this.  
  
"Um, is this real gold?" I asked.  
  
She smiled. "No, I'm afraid I can't afford to carve something as fine as gold."  
  
My jaw dropped. "Wow, you made this?"  
  
She nodded. "I painted it gold though. But I'm afraid sales don't go by very much here."  
  
She looked down to my side where my sword was. "Why such a young lady carry a sword."  
  
I looked to my side, "This was a gift..."  
  
"May I see it?"  
  
I pulled the sword out and gave the sword to her, she inpected and touched the part with Suzaku. "You received this from Toroki?"  
  
I nodded. Then I relized she mentioned Toroki, "H-how do you know Toroki?"  
  
"I made this sword, along with a sword of all the gods. I had given Byakko to Toroki also, but that was specifically for her..Suzaku, she was to give a worthy apprentice.." She looked up to me. "You must be her, what's your name child?"  
  
"Uh, Kibou."  
  
"Why don't you come on in."  
  
She opened a curtain to a darkened room lit dimly by a candle and the outside light. "So Toroki has found a worthy apprentice...How is she?"  
  
I looked down. "She died...3 years ago."  
  
"What a shame....dear Shikaran."  
  
"Shikaran?"  
  
"That was her name I had given her..being her mother,"  
  
"M-mother? But Toroki was over a hundred when she died....and that's because of Subaru!"  
  
She nodded. "Yes, that's true, but being a Genbu seishi, later on, Taiitsukun had granted me a longer life, since I had done most for the group. Shikaran was born 109 years after since I didn't fall in love, but despite my age, I still looked like I was 17, when I had protected the Preistess of Genbu. Once I fell in love, I started to grow old, I'm over 200 years old, dear."  
  
I was completely speechless. This was Toroki's mother? I can't believe it.... "I had given her Suzaku also if she ever met a Suzaku Seishi, she was to give the sword to her."  
  
I nodded. "I'm also known as Chiriko."  
  
"I see..."  
  
"What about the swords for Genbu and Seiryu?"  
  
"Genbu is still with me, but Seiryu, I still haven't found it, I had either lost it or it was stolen on my journey with my husband down here from Hokkan."  
  
"....Which Genbu seishi are you?"  
  
"Namame."  
  
I nodded. "If your having trouble with money, I'll help, I can support two things, I think. I'll work for you, but I don't know how my art is, I never drew anything in my life...or that of what I remember,"  
  
"You don't remember you past?" she asked getting up.  
  
"None...I lost 6 years ago...only parts are in my mind."  
  
She nodded. "Lets take a look at your art. I just want to see how well you do."  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Ok, that's it for this chapter...I needed to end it and submit it sooner or later since I know some people are waiting. And since...well, it's Chiriko's story I want it to mainly focus around her, but I'll get to Chichiri once in a while, but I want it to mainly focus Chiriko.  
  
Please reveiw!  
  
Also, Otaku, do you have an account on FF.net? I'm just wonderin......  
  
~*CosmicMoon 


	7. Chapter 7: The Suzaku Seishi

This chapter seems long, but it's not as long as it seems  
  
~*~*~*~  
Chapter 7: The Suzaku Seishi  
~*~*~*~  
  
I tried painting, I wasn't that great, I tried scuplting, I wasn't too great at that either. But what I found that I could do was bead, either, making necklaces, making pictures with tiny beads, (I don't know if that's done in china, but I like it, since I've done it once, it's hard but oh well, it's fun.....^^) all sorts of jewelry with just beads. I made sure to make them give off a glow so they can catch a ladies eye and possibly buy, and it worked. They also saw Namame's work and bought that too, but business was starting to go really well. I brought Tamahome's family some money, and apparently, he hadn't been by since we both left.  
  
I worked today so Namame can rest, I sat back and got a thick peice of string out and I decided to make prayer beads for when I saw Houjun again, I had found the beads to make it. Several weeks had past, I had constant constumers come back to see what new things there were, occasionally, they would buy it, some of them seemed to have started a collection.  
  
"Hi Kibou." said a woman, who was 18 and I had known as Kourin. She was in the herum of the emperor's palace, she would talk to me for hours about the emperor and how much she loved him. I'm surprised the emperor hasn't noticed her, she was pretty, long nice purple hair, and many other features. Kourin loved my jewelry and didn't mind buying it, she even brought others from the herum, the people from the palace didn't really want the herum girls to leave the palace, but they never got in trouble.  
  
"What ca' workin on there?" she asked.  
  
"It's something for a friend."  
  
"They look like prayer beads,"  
  
I nodded. "He's a buddhist mon-"  
  
"He? Now that's a different story! You never told me you had a boyfriend!" She teased.  
  
I smiled. "He's a really good friend, he took care of me when I lost my memory."  
  
"So your in love with him?"  
  
I blushed. "No, Kourin, it's nothing like that! He's like a brother to me."  
  
"Oh, come on, you can tell me! You can trust me!"  
  
"Kourin! stop it!" I yelled.  
  
"Your turning red!"  
  
I blushed harder and I couldn't stop. "Kourin!"  
  
She laughed. "I'm kidding. Ok, you don't have to admit to me that you like him."  
  
I frowned. "So what's his name?"  
  
"Ri Houjun...Oh and I made a necklace that I thought you would like!"  
  
I brought out a beaded necklace that had red beads that looked like pearls on it. "Oh wow! I know those aren't real, but they look like it! How much is it?"  
  
"It's for you! You told me your birthday was coming up! So happy birthday!"  
  
She took it from my hands. "Oh my gosh, Kibou, thank you!"  
  
"Not at all."  
  
"Have you heard about the Preistess of Suzaku being here?"  
  
I nodded. "I heard a bit about it. Is she in the palace?"  
  
She nodded. "She's such a brat! She's hanging all over the emperor! I hate her! But she's going to be going back so I don't have to worry about her."  
  
"Really?"  
  
"Well, I wasn't suppose to say, but she fell ill, because of all the stress so we're sending her home and then I hope she stays there!"  
  
I smiled. "Well, happy birthday anyway, Kourin."  
  
"Thanks Kibou, I may not see you for a while, we're going to escort her."  
  
I nodded. "Good luck then, I'll be here."  
  
She waved good bye and I returned to my work. The Preistess of Suzaku is a brat, how nice, hopefully that's just Kourin's agitation of her trying to take the emperor. Namame came out. "The preistess of Suzaku has come?"  
  
I nodded. "It seems the rumors are true, "  
  
"Kibou dear, you've helped me quite enough.."  
  
"But, this is the only way I can seem to think of to repay Toroki for training me."  
  
She nodded. "I'm sure she's happy now, but go out for a bit."  
  
"How long?"  
  
"A few months, just spend some time to yourself. I have more than enough to survive untill you come back. You could also try to find the other seishi, since they call out to each other."  
  
"Are you sure Namame?"  
  
She nodded. "Now go on."  
  
She pushed me out of her shop and led me out the city gates, she really wanted me to do this. She gave me my sword and turned away without saying good bye. I looked at my sword. "Ok.....I guess I'll try to moutains...But I have to walk, dammit!...I'll get a horse!"   
  
I went back into the city into an Inn where I knew the owner and the owner let me use a horse as long as I returned it. It was my favorite one, his name was Van, because I named him and it sounded familiar. (heh, a horse named after Van....^^) I rode the horse out and went to many cities. I went back to Shouryuu Memorial Lake, all the crusifixes were still there. Now it was completely clear, on top of the water....I hadn't been here for 6 years...I walked around, I couldn't find anything that was left over. I looked to the lake, I wasn't sure how deep it was, I could tell no one ever swam in it, but I wasn't sure where the city would be. I took my sword off along with my shoes and socks, I wanted to see if there was anything of mine stuck there.  
  
I dove into the water and saw the city closer than I thought. I saw the broken up house, that I somehow still remembered of Houjuns'.  
  
I went into the house and saw a small bag inside, but I was running out of air, but I could barely see and I don't know if I could find it again. So I grabbed it as fast as I could through the window and swam as fast as I could up to the surface. I gasped for air when I got to the surface. I got out of the water and tried to catch my breath, I head throbbed now and so did my eyes. I heard rustling so I looked up expecting it to be my horse, but he was laying down sleeping, like I left him. I looked around more and saw a robber trying to take my stuff. I got up. "Hey!"  
  
He looked at me, he had greenish eyes, flaring red hair and he wore a black coat. "What do you think your doing."  
  
I picked up my sword and drew it. "How bout you get away from my stuff."  
  
"Heh, what do you think your going to do?"  
  
"Oh you'll see."  
  
I sneezed. "Dammit."  
  
I charged towards him and slashed my sword and he jumped away. He yelled something so when I looked up wolves were attacking me...An illusion. I cut them all up to shreds and quickly got to the robber. I put my sword to his neck. "Give anything you took back!"  
  
"I didn't take anything!"  
  
"Good." I pushed him away. "If you want money, just ask, I don't have too much, but if you need some I'll give you some,"I paused and kneeled down to my horse. "So do you need money?" I asked getting my money bag out.  
  
"I tried to rob you..Why are you still trying to help me?"  
  
"Because, your helpless."  
  
He frowned. "I'm not helpless!"  
  
"Stealing from me?"  
  
"Shut up! What about you, jumping into the water like that, you should have more respect for the people who died!"  
  
"Like your in the place to talk about respect. Besides, I was in the flood this town was in. I made most of these crusifixes!"  
  
He crossed his arms. "Do you want me to buy you lunch?" I asked.  
  
He snorted. "Hmm...ok, change your mind, go ahead and come along." I said walking away, I sneezed.  
  
"Aren't you cold?"  
  
I sneezed again. "No."  
  
A coat was put over me. "Your stubburn aren't you?"  
  
I turned to him. "Your a dumb ass, so we're even.. Do you want lunch?"  
  
"Are you asking me out?"  
  
I smirked. "I don't think so I'm 24 years old, little boy...What's your name?"  
  
"Genrou...."  
  
"I'm Kibou. Come on, What are you doing around here anyway?" I asked as we started to walk towards the town near by.  
  
"I'm just traveling, I'm going to return to the mountains soon."   
  
"Ah, a mountain bandit, your a bit young."  
  
"17." He snorted.  
  
I took him to a small restraunt and he ordered what he wanted and I ordered mine. I hung the bag to dry, so the things inside it could probably dry too. After eating, I went out to see the things in the bag. I opened it, I pulled out a small sqare shaped..thing...I opened it, there was a picture in it, that looked very faded, there was my face. I looked to the side at the lettering. I could read it. The first letters were too faded to see ,but I could make out "Kibou", the in thicker lettering.. "Driver's..." I couldn't make out the rest, I could read this..These letters..  
  
There was another hole that I opened, I pulled out a wet peice of paper. It was a green color and much faded. Then there was a picture, I picked up the faded picture, most of it was gone, execpt the faded picture of me, and that girl Miaka.  
  
"Ohne-chan! Please don't leave!" the little girl, Miaka said holding on to my leg. I was holding a large bag and I was at... an airport...was that what it was called?"  
  
"Miaka.."  
  
"Ohne-chan, I don't want you to leave! I'll be stuck here alone!"  
  
I kneeled down to her. "You still have your older brother,"  
  
Tears filled the little girls' eyes. I wiped them away. "Don't cry, then I'll cry."  
  
"But I don't want you to leave."  
  
I hugged her and tears started to fill my eyes, "I'll be back to see you."  
  
"Ohne-chan.."  
  
"Kibou! let's get going!" I looked up and saw the person I had once seen as my father, but he looked a bit younger. I continued to hug her.  
  
"Kibou!"  
  
I snapped back to reality. "You ok? Your spacing out there."  
  
"Oh, I'm ok..." That little girl...must be my little sister...Otherwise, she wouldn't be crying so much...  
  
I got on my horse. "Where you heading Genrou?"  
  
"I'm just going around, you?"  
  
I shrugged. "I'm just going around too....But if your busy, I guess, I'll see you again someday."  
  
He nodded. "Probably.."  
  
"It was nice to meet you Genrou."  
  
I hoped on Van. "Bye Genrou." I started to ride off up north, not quite sure where I was going. But my instincts told me something like a Suzaku seishi was in that direction. But I almost thought that Genrou was a Suzaku seishi, since Toroki told me the Suzaku seishi are destined friends. I got along with him just fine. I came to a small town, it seemed about the same size that Shouryuu was. It was a quiet town, I didn't see many people out in the streets. I heard a meow at my feet. I looked down and saw a white cat with brown on it's back. I picked it up, "Hey there, kitty. Where'd you come from?"  
  
It started to meow again. "Are you hungry? I'll get you a fish if you like."  
  
It meowed as if happy. I walked around the town to see if anything was there, I soon found a place with fish and they got me a couple and I payed for it. "Here, we can eat together, since I'm sure you can't finish two fish, I'll cook mine and give you one after mine's done, ok?"  
  
It started to purr. It jumped out of my arms and started to run, it looked back to me as if to follow. So I did, I followed him to a house just outside the city. He lead me to the door and I knocked while he meowed. A man who looked like he needed to badly shave and get a hair cut answered the door. "What do you want?" he asked sharply.  
  
"Is this your cat sir?"  
  
He nodded. "Yes it is."  
  
I handed him a bag with both fish in it. "Well, this is for him. I bought it, I didn't know he was yours."  
  
"...Thank you."  
  
I looked over, herbs....medicinal herbs... "Sir..I was wondering, my friend's father...He is diseased with an illness that I'm not sure of, I was wondering if you can tell me how to help him, if I tell you the symtoms. I'll get everything and mix it myself, but I just need to know the mix."  
  
"I don't deal with humans..." He said coldly.  
  
"But...The herbs."  
  
"I don't deal with them." he repeated just as cold.  
  
The kitty jumped into my arms. "Come Tama."  
  
He hissed. "Please sir..."  
  
He sighed. "What are his symtoms."  
  
I told him everything that was wrong. He went in and brought a bottle out. "There isn't a cure, but this should make things better for him."  
  
I took the bottle and Tama jumped into his arms. "Thank you..."  
  
Tama jumped down again and pulled on my sock. "Hey, come on, I have to get going. Oh...come on now."  
  
I looked to the man. "I'm sorry sir..."  
  
"Would you like to come in?"  
  
"Um..I guess so, I have alot of time on my hands..I'll cook the fish, if you want."  
  
I came in and he closed the door. "Thank you...I'm Kibou."  
  
"Myo Juan."  
  
I started to cook the food. "You seem so lonely out here. Why is it you live out here?"  
  
He was silent. I continued to cook, he must have a personal reason. "Your not much of a talker are you, Juan."  
  
He still remained silent, Tama nuzzled up to my leg and I soon finished making the fish. "Where are you from?" he asked.  
  
"I-I'm actually not sure. I lost my memory 6 years ago. I don't know anything about myself, I think I have a little sister named Miaka, but that's all that I can remember, nothing else seems to be too clear. The places I was at, the people around me...They're all still a blur."  
  
"I see, 6 years, aren't you lonely?"  
  
I shook my head. "Not at all, I have hella connections with people so I don't need to worry. It seems that now, I'm just wandering around. Besides, I spent 3 years training and 3 years training under some one else with a person helped me when I lost my memory..I haven't seen him over a month, but you know, we'll see each other some day. Maybe soon, under certain circumstances... Did.." I paused for a moment and thought about if I wanted to say this. He looked at me to continue. "Did...something happen to make you live out here by yourself."  
  
"I had a fiance` a year ago," he started.  
  
Fiance`? Just like Houjun. "I was the doctor for the town then, and in return for healing him, that family gave me Shouka..What was her name, they gave me her hand in marrage. Unfortnatly, I was away when Shouka had caught a plague spreading around..I came as fast as I could, but..."  
  
His voice shoulded a bit cracked, he seemed like he was going to cry, but didn't , he lost his fiance` in a disease he wasn't here to cure...Houjun lost his finace` in a flood and to his best friend... Both of them lost their loves, terribly. Houjun became a wreck from what I saw after the flood, but gradually got better over the years, but Juan, he hasn't gotten over it, it's only been a year..And he is also blaming himself for the death of a love that he really had no control over.   
  
"I'll stop by this city another time, Juan, thanks for letting me eat with you, it took some time that could've been wasting..Now, I'll have to get this medicine to my friend's father."  
  
He stayed silent, I came to the door, "Thanks again, it was great meeting you, Juan."  
  
There was a small meow, I smiled. "You too Tama, I hope to see you both again."  
  
I went out the door and left to Tamahome's house, he should be back by now..  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Not much to say, it got out earlier than I thought it would! I don't know how long it'll take for it the next chapter out but I'll try to get it out in three days time, but I'm busy because of my grades, and my band's going on tour sooner or later, but I have to get my grades up by a certain time so I can go because my grades aren't doing too well, so it might be a bit, sorry.  
  
~*CosmicMoon. 


	8. Chapter 8: The Preistess of Suzaku

I've managed to see that this my longest story..word wise, with the smallest amount of reveiws...all my crap stories have over 20 and they're only like 4 chapters long...Just proves, people are more strict upon things, like all those high reveiwed stories that I have. And I get to go on tour! I'm so happy! I'm glad I'm done with my work.  
~*~*~*~  
Chapter 8: The Preistess of Suzaku  
~*~*~*~  
  
It took me a while to find my way back to the capital but I gave the medicine to Tamahome's father, Tamahome was finally home but he seemed to be dazed and senseless. "Tamahome? What's bothering you?"  
  
"Miaka..."  
  
That name....he knew that name! How did he know that name? "Miaka? Who's that?"  
  
"Preistess of Suzaku.."  
  
"Is she? Where's she now?"  
  
"Home..."  
  
He still seemed senseless, he sounded dull when he talked. "Tamahome, get up, your getting lazier and I'm doing all the work!"  
  
"She left...She's not coming back...."  
  
I sighed. "If she loves you, she'll do everything she can to find you!"  
  
"Yeah!...That could be it!"  
  
"Now get your ass up and get money! I'm not making enough and you know that!"  
  
He stood up but then sat back down. "I'll do it later.."  
  
I slapped him at the back of the head. "Get your ass up or I'll get you a job, and believe me, If I get you a job, your taking it and your not going to be happy."  
  
He got up. "Ok, ok, I'm going."  
  
"Now, in a few weeks, you better come back with a bunch of money, I'll support the family till then, I just want your ass out of the house." I pushed him out the door and slammed it.  
  
"Sissy, where's brother going?" asked Yuiren coming over to me.  
  
I picked her up. "He's going to be away for a bit, don't worry Yuiren, he'll be back with treats and other things!"  
  
She hugged me. "You aren't leaving, are you Sissy Kibou?"  
  
I shook my head. "Of course not, but I'll won't be here too much in the day, I'll be wroking, but I'll be back every night, ok?"  
  
She nodded. "Now go and play."  
  
She jumped out of my lap and ran off into the other room. I sat back, I wanted to go to Kutou, but I don't know if Houjun's still there. I can't leave Tamahome's family anyway, I walked out of the house and headed to the capital. I headed to Namame's store, when I was about there, a knife was being held up to her by a robber, everyone around her, they seemed too afraid to help. I ran to the store and immediatly drew my sword. "You better let her got if you know what's good for you."  
  
He let Namame drop and then turned to me. "And what are you going to do?"  
  
"Kill you for all that matters."  
  
He came towards me and tried to stab me with his dagger, but I simply jumped up, it wasn't fast enough to avoid a slash to my thigh, it was a deep cut so I lost my balance and fell, I slash my sword in no paticular place, but it was able to hit him. He ran off, I bent down and tried to stop the bleeding with my hand. I went to the back of the store where Namame was. "Namame, Namame, are you ok?" I asked stumbling. She got up, "I'm fine dear, he didn't do anything."  
  
The pain started to go around my body. I fell to my knees. "Are you sure?"  
  
"You should be worried for yourself, dear. Here, let's get that bandaged up."  
  
Namame told me to stay right there and she went in to get bandages and wrapped up my leg. "Thank you for protecting me dear."  
  
I nodded. "Of course."  
  
She helped me up. "Can you walk?"  
  
I started to limp a bit but managed to walk to the inside of the store where there was a small bed. "Thanks Namame,"  
  
"Go ahead and rest for today, I'll take you home later. I'll work today."  
  
"Namame, I can-"  
  
"You've overworked and you aren't getting as much pay as you should, so I'll do it today."  
  
Namame left and left me alone in there. I closed my eyes, before I knew it, I fell asleep...  
  
"Kibou.."  
  
I knew that voice, it was a voice I loved, but in a way, hated....Jason... He knelt down to me, I was wearing...the same outfit that I saw when I was walking in the pouring rain. "Kibou, your finally back, and you know I love you, your the only one I want to be with...will you marry me?"  
  
My jaw droppped, tears filled my eyes..they weren't happy, they were adding on stress tears. "Jason...I just got back from Japan...I still have to get to college...I have too much to think about.. I can't possibly.."  
  
"I just spent a fortune on this ring....I did all this to make you happy!" he almost yelled. We were at a house so there was no one around.  
  
"I-I don't know what to say...Ellyn said.."  
  
"Ellyn? Ellyn? You listened to Ellyn?!"  
  
I got up but he pushed me against the wall. "She's trying to tear us apart!"  
  
I bit my lip. "No..It's you! Look at what your doing!"  
  
"Kibou." That tone of voice, I reconized it. "What the hell have I told you about doing that?!"  
  
My vision snapped to reality and I was in a bed, that wasn't in Namame's shop. I sat up, I reconized the place, it was Tamahome's house. Yuiren ran in, "Sissy! Your awake!"  
  
I got up and then remembered the pain in my thigh. I flinched a bit but bore the pain and Yuiren crawled onto my lap. "How long have I been asleep."  
  
"A whole day!"  
  
"Wow..."  
  
I got up holding Yuiren and I still limped. I saw Tamahome's father, "Your walking!" I said cheerfully.  
  
"Yes, the medicine you brought me slowed down the disese but I could still feel it in my system, but I feel much better. Thank you, Kibou."  
  
I smiled. "I promised that I would get that for you. How did I get back here anyway?"  
  
"There was a woman, I believe her name was Namame." Tamahome's father answered.  
  
"Did she come with anyone?"  
  
He shook his head. Yuiren was let down and I looked out the window. It was day, the sun was shining brightly in the sky. "I need to go see Namame."  
  
I ran to town, I tried to get there as fast as I could. She was infact there, she smiled when she saw me. "Good to see you awake. You've been asleep for quite a bit."  
  
"Did you bring me home?"  
  
She nodded. "I led the man who carried you home. He was such a nice young man too. He was very curious at what happened to you though, do you know him, his name, or what he told me was Chichiri."  
  
I gasped. "Chichiri? Has he left? When'd he stop by? Do you know where he went? How-"  
  
Namame laughed. "You've gotten quite worked up by this, is his name Houjun?"  
  
I nodded then blushing, relizing how over enthusiastic I was being. "Is he still in town?"  
  
"Most likey.."  
  
Well, I'll watch over the store, he might come back."  
  
"Ok." said Namame going inside. "Just tell me if your going to go around town with him,"  
  
I nodded. I waited, hoping that Chichri would pass by, but Kourin did, she was looking normal as she ususally did.  
  
"Hey Kibou. You finally seemed to get Tamahome off his feet."  
  
I nodded. "Yeah, so Tamahome fell in love with the Preistess."  
  
"Yeah he did, surprising..But that means she'll keep her hands off the emperor!"  
  
"Her name is Miaka, right?"  
  
She nodded. "I've grown to like her a bit though."  
  
Kourin looked at all the jewerly around my store. "You have alot more..I also heard that this store was about to be robbed and when you tried to stop it, you got your leg cut."  
  
I nodded. I got up and showed her my bandaged leg. "It's a pretty deep cut, I'm still limping."  
  
"Your ok now?"  
  
I smiled. "I'm walking aren't I?....How many of the Suzaku Seishi have gathered? I mean, I think you should know, you do live there,"  
  
Kourin looked at me a bit strange. "Well, only 3, The emperor Hotohori, and of course, Tamahome...and me...I'm a Suzaku seishi..Nuriko."  
  
I was a bit shocked to hear that Kourin was actually a Suzaku Seishi, I had been friends with a Suzaku seishi and I had not even known it. I was disapointed though, since they had not found Chichiri and that didn't make my search for him any easier...  
  
Kourin bought one of the earrings and headed back to the palace. I really wanted to see Chichiri again, it had been quite a while since I had seen him. I was hoping to see him so many times, but I hadn't had much luck like I ususally do. I missed him being around so much...  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
This is a bit of a short chapter...Next chapter will be better and everything like that, I'll try to get that out soon.  
  
~*CosmicMoon 


	9. Chapter 9: The familiar face

If all my favorite stories are looked at, it seems they all have over 100 some 200 reviews, all drama...But I think it's the summary of the story that catches the eye of a reader...but you know, that's only my opinion...Ok, anyway, I took some time on this, and edited through it since I actually had time to do it, but it took awhile to get it out, I know, but I made the chapter as long as I could for that.  
  
~*~*~*~  
  
Chapter 9: The familiar face  
  
~*~*~*~  
  
A few months past, I've only been going back a couple times, but not too much hoping Houjun would come by, it seems every time I wasn't there, Houjun came by so I tried to stick to staying to the store more and more. Then finally, this man came, I knew that this man was someone from the palace.  
  
"Are you Kibou?"  
  
I stood up, I barely limped now, but it still pained, I knew it would heal soon enough, it would've healed sooner if I applied better treatment to it. "I am."  
  
"The Emperor requests you to come to the palace at once."  
  
I looked inside to Namame, she came out. "Go ahead and go Kibou,"  
  
"I'll be right back, Namame."  
  
The guard led me to the emperor where he was there with many of his counselers. There was a familiar presence from him... "Counselers, may you please, I would like to speak to this young lady alone."  
  
Like Kourin said, he was a bit handsome and I could see why Kourin liked him. The Counselers left and the room was silent for a bit as the emperor just sat there. "I sentance you to death!"  
  
I then relized it....He almost got me, I coughed. "Quit the act Chichiri, I know it's you."  
  
The emperor frowned and a smoke of yellowish type of cloud surounded him and he changed back to the same Chichiri. "You always do that Chiriko!" he whined.  
  
"That's because you've done it too many times...Anyway, what are you doing in the emperor's place?"  
  
"I'm just substituting for the emperor. He's gone with the Preistess of Suzaku to find the rest of the Suzaku seishi."  
  
He came down to me and he had something in his hand, it was a small flute. "It's not as good as the one Taiitsukun gave you, but I thought I'd make another one since your other broke."  
  
I took the small flute from his hands. It was neatly carved with every whole that I needed and there were a couple designs on there that made it look really unique. "T-thank you..Houjun.."  
  
I had a small bag with me and it contained many important things, as the necklace that I made Chichiri. "Here, this is for you Chichiri."  
  
He took it from my hands. "Prayer beads."  
  
"Yeah, I added more beads onto the design, I hope it's still ok."  
  
He smiled. "Of course, thank you Kibou."  
  
He then looked down to my leg. "How's your leg feeling."  
  
I shrugged. "It's been better. Thank you for carrying me back home...By the way, Tamahome's been gone for a bit, where is he?"  
  
"..Kutou. They forced us."  
  
I looked down. "I see...But, the preistess of Suzaku.."  
  
He took his mask off. "About her...I need to talk to you about that."  
  
I nodded. "But not here."  
  
He went to the door, "Counselers, go to your position, I'm going to my room."  
  
"yessir."  
  
He led me a different way out to a room that was really far out at the other end of the palace. It figured it might've been his room.  
  
"About the preistess...It seems, she was the girl from your visions."  
  
"...Miaka...Yeah, I heard from Tamahome and a girl I met named Kourin, she's a suzaku seishi, her names Nuriko, I think...she told me too."  
  
Houjun chuckled. "You don't know."  
  
I looked at him a bit confused. "What do you mean? I don't know what?"  
  
He shook his head. "You don't have to know."  
  
I frowned. "Come on Houjun! Is it something about Kourin? What?"  
  
"You'll find out." he said. I sighed. "Your not fair Houjun..What have you been doing the last few months?"  
  
"Nothing really."  
  
"Your highness, the preistess of Suzaku has returned." the counselers said from outside. Houjun changed back into the young emperor. "Come on Kibou."  
  
I felt a little uneasy about that. It was the girl from my visions, what would I do when I meet her? What would I say? Would she reconize me? I followed close behind Houjun. When we got close I saw her, I payed no attention to the people around her, but she stuck out and suddenly I grew afraid to meet her. I started to panic, I back away. "I-I can't do this...I have to go Houjun...I told Namame I'd be right back."  
  
I suddenly changed my formed to some random person and ran out of the palace past the girl that I had many times in my visions. It scared me, all the life that I remembered I wanted to meet her, but now, I was scared to death by the sight of her. Only hearing about her, about her being near...I wanted to meet her...Why can't I face her now? They really paid no attention to me when I ran past them. I ran back to Namame's shop, breathless and feeling a bit guilty that I ran out on Houjun like that.  
  
"Is something the matter dear? Did you meet your friend?" She asked once she saw me.  
  
I nodded. "Yeah, I-I did..But I also saw the Preistess of Suzaku.."  
  
"The girl you frequently have in your visions?"  
  
I nodded again. "I couldn't face her, I was too afraid."  
  
"Of what dear?"  
  
I shook my head. "I don't know. I just couldn't face her..."  
  
I came to the inside of the door and sat down next to Namame. "I don't know why....I'm just afraid."  
  
Namame patted my back. "You've been searching everywhere to find your memory, and you found someone who would help you because she's apart of your memory, you have nothing to be scared of, dear. Now go on back, you have to face your fear, and since she may summon Suzaku soon, you have to protect her, being a warrior, so I'll look after the shop."  
  
"Bu-"  
  
"I have been running this shop for 12 years, Kibou, go." She said interupting me. "Come back when your done. now, go back, dear."  
  
I sighed. "Ok.."  
  
I slowly walked back to the palace. I was taking my time, I thought of the people that were around her, I didn't take much notice of them, so I didn't know what they looked like, but they all had a familiar feel from them, I think all...I tried to think of how many people there were, the emperor wasn't with them, I saw Kourin, the Preistess, and three other people, so not including the Preistess...seven seishi...not including me...so including me would be eight....Something wasn't right.. One of them is posing to be Chiriko... I again changed my form once I got to the palace. The guards let me through when I told them I was Kibou...It was funny how no one pays much attention to anything. I walked around the palace, not going in any particular direction. I tried to find to Houjun, but he was no where in sight so I tried to sense where he was. He ended up finding me when I was near his room.  
  
"Kibou, are you ok, no da?"  
  
I nodded. "I'm ok...."  
  
"You can't face her, can you no da?"  
  
I shook my head. "I really can't, I seriously don't know why,"  
  
"You have to face her if you don't want to...There seems to be a fraud among the Suzaku Seishi, I'm not sure which one it is though, no da."  
  
I couldn't get a look at them so how would I know? I layed back on the bed that I was already sitting on. My legs hung over the edge, Houjun was sitting right next to me. "I'll try to find out which one it is." he said.  
  
I closed my eyes and nodded. A peice of folded paper seemed to appear in my visions, they were written in a different language, that wasn't chinese or the letters that I saw on the card that I had found...Japanese letters... "Ohne-chan." it read.   
  
"I'm trying to get into Jonan! Wish me luck! ^^ I wish you can be here to help me, I wish I can be as smart as you too, or Yui, then I wouldn't have to worry so much about the exam into getting into Jonan. How's America? I already miss you. The house feels empty without you, it's only Keisuke and Mom, how's dad doing? Yui's over at my house right now, and she says hi. I hope you get into a good college ohne-chan.  
  
Wish you were here,  
  
Miaka."  
  
I looked around, the house was so different from what I seen in my other visions, it was my own... There was a knock at the door and I went to answer it. I paused at the door. "Who is it."  
  
There was no answer, I looked through the door little window...I'm not sure what that was called. I saw someone whom I didn't know.  
  
(Chichiri's PoV)  
  
I looked down to Kibou, she seemed to have fallen asleep somehow. She suddenly sat up, her eyes wide open, but they were in a trance, she was having another vision. Tears started to fill her eyes, the second time this seemed to happen to her in her visions. I shook her lightly and she gasped. She looked at me, she was out of her vision, tears now streaming down her face. She then buried her head in her hands. She started to sob softly. It was an awkard moment, she was just sitting right there, crying..and I felt that I could do nothing... I opened my mouth to say something of comfort, but my mouth went dry.  
  
She was in pain and I could do nothing to help her...I was afraid to just embrace her, I feel so drawn to her right now, but I could do nothing. My mind was screaming at me, there were two sides of me, one side that told me to comfort her and the other side that told me, that if I fell in love with her, It end up the same way it did last time...But I'm not sure if I already had...  
  
"He died..." she fianlly said.  
  
I took my mask off. "Who did?"  
  
"My father...before Jason was sent to jail...he died..."  
  
I was confused at what she was saying, I only remembered her saying that Jason was the abusive boyfriend she once had. She was really starting to get her memory back. "He died of cancer, I didn't even know untill he was dead...I wasn't there for him...He's dead..."  
  
She ended up hugging me around my waist and just sobbed. I tried to comfort her, but still my mouth was dry and I couldn't find words to say. After a couple minutes, she pulled away and looked away from me, but I saw her face, mixed with the tears, flushed. "I'm sorry, Houjun...I didn't mean to get that emotional on you.."  
  
She got up and was about to leave. "I-I need to go for a walk."  
  
"Do you want me to go with you?" I asked 'Did that just come out of my mouth?'  
  
She paused for a moment, "U-um sure."  
  
I followed her out and handed her a small towel that I had with me. "Thank you." she said, her voice sounding a bit cracked.  
  
She wiped away the tears and sniffled softly. "I was never there to say good bye to him...And Miaka asked how he was...Did I ever answer her..?"  
  
"So Miaka is your little sister."  
  
She nodded. "I'm still not sure of everything, but everything is slowly peicing together."  
  
"I was going to go to Kutou soon to get Tamahome, do you want to come with us?"  
  
"Us?" she asked.  
  
"Well, Miaka would be coming too. But if you don't want to, you don't have to."  
  
"No, I'll come..I have something to take care of there anyway." she said looking down.  
  
"Ok, it's tommarrow. I'll get you a room here and I'll come and get you."  
  
She nodded. "That'd be good, thanks Houjun."  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Okey, there this chapter, it's taking me more and more time to get these chapters out, but I will get them out, this is the only story I'm working on so don't worry if you think I won't update untill like a year or two, yeah...I've done that with other stories...but ok.....review please..  
  
~*CoSmIcMoOn 


	10. Chapter 10: Back at Kutou

I'm not worried about lack of reveiws..I like this story! I just love reading reveiws and it's more inspiration to write the story, or as Otaku helped me, to improve them. I wouldn't give up on it, especailly because I know what's ahead. I just have to fill everything in. :) only my little mind know's what's ahead. I go through this story 'till it's finished, it's just take a while to post ^^;; ALSO, I can't spell worth shit! I'm surprised I even got into honors english! Strange how the world works out.......everthing is evil! not really, but I'm just rambling...and not really focused on anything...so...bleh...  
  
I found out something, I want alot of things but I can't afford it.  
  
Which brings me to thinking, If I were smart, I'd have money.  
  
anyway....just a little off suject of anything that has to do with anyone....and stuff and stuff.....and stuff...  
  
  
  
~*~*~*~*~  
  
Chapter 10: Back at Kutou  
  
~*~*~*~*~  
  
(Kibou's PoV)  
  
~*The next day*~  
  
Houjun was so nice to me yesterday...He always is, but it seemed like he was caring for me more than he usually does. And I could see that when I cried, he tried to comfort me but couldn't. I felt awkward but still greived but I'm sure that Houjun felt awkward too. I feel like I'm growing to like Houjun alot...I feel as if I'm falling in love with him, but I'm not sure. I doubt it because of his past, he most likey wouldn't love me in that way. I should try to stop liking him that way. He would be just like a brother to me..Like I told Kourin, Houjun's like a brother to me.   
  
Houjun came to my room in the morning. "We're going to leave at night, so you have plently of time."  
  
"And, I'll go seperately, I'll come out if you run into trouble."  
  
"Hey Chichiri where'd you pu--" That voice...I knew that voice. Someone burst through the door..Genrou? "Put, put....Holy shit! It's YOU!"  
  
"..Yeah..It is."  
  
"What the hell are you doing here?!" he yelled.  
  
"Stop yelling, your making too much of a fuss." I said calmly.  
  
"Do you two know each other, no da?" Houjun asked.  
  
I nodded. "Yeah, I met him months ago, what the heck are you doing here?"  
  
"I'm Tasuki, a Suzaku Seishi, why the hell are you here, I know your not a Suzaku Seishi, because we found them all."  
  
"Yeah, that's the thing, I'm a Suzaku seishi, one of them is a fraud." I answered. "Why are YOU a suzaku seishi."  
  
He snorted. "I could ask you the same thing!"  
  
"Genrou, I'm smarter, most likey stronger, and most of all, again, s-m-a-r-t-e-r than you. Your a dumbass that tried to steal my stuff!"  
  
"Fuck you I'm leavin'." he said leaving and slamming the door behind him. I giggled a bit. "Genrou's fun to tease..Ah, young ones these days." I said abit sarcastically.  
  
"You seem to know everyone by their real names, you don't seem to be use to their seishi names, no da."  
  
I shrugged. "So what? I call you Houjun and Chichiri, I'm trying but I always stick by what I hear first, so it's kinda hard for me to get use to Chiriko, especailly in the last couple months, since Namame has been calling me Kibou. I like calling people by their real name. Like you, I'd perfer to call you Houjun because that's what I heard first, but I'll call you Chichiri once in a while when I remember to."  
  
"Alright, no da. Go ahead and get prepared for tonight." he said about to leave.  
  
"All done."  
  
He smiled faintly. "Thanks for taking me along, Chichiri."  
  
The day was long so I decided to just go to sleep for a bit. I was just feeling tired, I wasn't sleeping much the last few days, except last night..  
  
"Kibou, you'll have to choose now." said a man dress in..what's that called? A suit, he had something to do with law..A lawyer..A peice of paper was put infront of me, a blank space where I was to put down who I was going to live with. "Don't be afraid."  
  
I sat there staring blankly at it, I was 13...It was before I left for America..and I knew that..I looked next to me, another peice of paper was there, and a boy whom I had seen for the first time in my visions. The lawyer waited paitently for us to write something down. This must be Keisuke, the one mentioned in the letter. I clutched the item that I held in my hand.  
  
"Ohnii-san..."  
  
"You've said you've wanted to go to America Kibou, and that's where dad's going, go with him. I'll stay with mom and with Miaka." he answered quietly so the lawyer wouldn't hear.  
  
"Are you sure?"  
  
He nodded. "I'll write you and tell you how Miaka's growing up and everything, don't worry."  
  
I bit my lip and started to print something down. "father" it read in japanese lettes and Keisuke wrote down "mother". The lawyer took the papers and nodded. "Ok then, Kibou, you'll have to pack your bags."  
  
"..bou..Kibou!" yelled a voice that belong to Houjun.  
  
I opened my eyes. He was shaking me awake. "You'll have to get there before us, we have to find a tree with alot of flowers surrounding it. That's where Tamahome's going to meet us."  
  
"Ok. I'll head there now."  
  
He nodded and left the room. I remembered that I had to play a certain tune to teleport anywhere. I brought out the flute that Chichiri made for me, I brought it to my lips a played a quick tune that I learned from Taiitsukun and a glow started to surround me and I appeared outside in a forest near the palace. I safely landed on a tree and looked around. I jumped from one tree to another untill I found the large tree with flowers surrounding it. I layed there and rested for a bit.  
  
"Look, we found it!" I heard the familiar voice of Miaka call out.  
  
I opened my eyes and looked down, Chichiri, along with Miaka and some reason Genrou emerged from behind the bushes. I saw Tama too, he must've followed my scent here...But Tama was Juan's cat...That must mean Juan's a Suzaku Seishi...Wow, so I met all the Suzaku Seishi except the emperor, before the Preistess of Suzaku..Juan must be..who's left.. Mitsukake. Chichiri looked up to me and I waved slightly to him, he only nodded so the other two wouldn't notice.   
  
Quite a bit of time passed and I was about to fall asleep again. "What the hell is taking Tamahome so long? Damn, is he scared or something."  
  
"He isn't scared of anything!" Miaka yelled.  
  
Miaka was truley in love with Tamahome..That's most likely why she came back. Thank god, for Tamahome's sake. But Tamahome was late, and he's been known to try his best to be on time,especailly if it's important.  
  
Tama looked up and me and meowed. I put my finger on my lip to indicate him to stop. Tama jumped up and layed down on my lap, Miaka or Genrou paid no attention. I petted Tama gently and layed back against the branch. Something must've happened. I should've looked around when I had the chance. When I heard rustling in the bushes, I sat up and Tama jumped down, I saw soldiers instead of Tamahome. Soldiers with Nakago, and a the girl..I've seen before in my visions, Yui..Why was she here? When Nakago ordered the soldiers to capture them, but Miaka knocked them down and Chichiri escaped with Genrou quickly. The soldiers took away Miaka, leaving Nakago and Yui standing there.  
  
I jumped down from the tree and Nakago turned towards me, He wore the necklace with the ring Chichiri gave me around his neck. I drew the sword from my waist. Yui also turned to look at me. She gasped when she saw my face..  
  
"Kibou-san.."  
  
She knew me..I'm not surprised, I wish I knew me. "Give it back Nakago." I said coldly. "Give me back my necklace."  
  
He smirked and untied it from around his neck. He held it up. "Such a small useless thing means so much to you."  
  
Yui put his hand down. "No leave her alone Nakago!"  
  
"Lady Yui-" he started but Yui glared at him. "You heard me, leave her alone!"  
  
I slowly put my sword down. Yui ran to me. "Kibou-san, how'd you get here? Get to this world?"  
  
I looked her a bit confused...World? Did I come from a different world. I back a bit away. "I don't know what you mean."  
  
"Kibou-san, don't you know who I am? It's me, Yui, Miaka's---"  
  
She paused for a moment and looked down, she didn't want to finished the sentance. She then looked down at me. "You look alot older than when I last saw you, I heard, about what happened to your father, and everything in America, you were reported missing for over a month."  
  
A month? But I had been living the life without a memory for six years, how I could be missing for just over a month? "Lady Yui, you must've be near her, she is a Suzaku warrior!" Nakago said still standing the same place he had been.  
  
"Shut the hell up fuck face." I said to him. "She could to whatever the hell she wants, give me back my necklace!"  
  
Yui turned back to Nakago. "Nakago, give it back to her."  
  
He threw it to me. I caught it, it was still the same as it already had been. Yui then turned back to me. "I don't understand this..How old are you Kibou-san?"  
  
"...24."  
  
Yui's jaw droped. "Impossible! you were 18 when you left for America again!"  
  
I was so confused. Yet, what she said made sense to my visions. There was a scream that came from the palace. Nakago looked to that direction as did Yui, I teleported myself away from them. My head throbbed with confusion. Another world....Am I from another world? Was that why my visions seemed do strange? And I had only been missing for over a month, how can that be? (A/N: I attempted to do the math on it, I may be wrong, but since one day is roughly 3 months, it seems, and she was there 6 years, it seemed to come out to I think 36 days.)  
  
I came into the palace and tried to find Miaka. I soon did, seeing her go into a room, I teleported myself into that room and stayed on the shadows of the ceiling where I knew that they couldn't see me, since Yui was in there as well. I relized why she paused. She felt betrayed by Miaka. But they spoke of a book..."Coming back through the book for you.." Miaka said...It made no sense at all.  
  
Yui stood up and turned away from her. "I saw your sister.."  
  
Miaka's eyes widened. "My sister? How? That's impossible."  
  
"She's 24."  
  
"What?! N-no! She's 18! It----She must've gotten into the book before I did, that probably why she was missing."  
  
I didn't understand. What are they talking about? What did they mean by getting into a book? Miaka stayed silent for a second. Yui turned back towards her. "You should know! She's a Suzaku Seishi!"  
  
That's right, I still haven't shown my face to Miaka. "That's not possible either! I have all the Suzaku Seishi with me!"  
  
"Nakago wouldn't lie to me." Yui said coldly.  
  
Nakago? Yui trusted that bastard? What could've happened? I didn't have any clue of what was going on. I didn't show my face either, than I'd be more confused than I already was and I still didn't want to show my face to Miaka. Someone opened the door. It was Tamahome. The two of them looked to the door, Miaka had tears fill her eyes and hugged Tamahome. But I felt a strange vibe from him, it was Tamahome....but it wasn't.  
  
Tamahome pushed her away and brought out numchucks, he was giong to hit Miaka. I instantly changed my form into Chichiri. I blocked the attack with my dead arm. It started to bleed heavily and stain the clothes. "Come on, Miaka." I said pulling her arm out of the room. "Tamahome." she whispered. "Why...Tamahome, WHY?!"  
  
The guards caught us shortly, my arm felt no pain, but it was starting to numb my body, so I was pretty much weak. Nakago soon found us and took both of us. I soon relized it was Chichiri desguising himself to be Nakago. I hit him in the back of the head with my fist. "Loser, you can't fool me this time!"  
  
"Ouch, no da." he said then a yellow could surrounded him. "You ruin everything, Chiriko."  
  
"Chiriko?...But then, what about...? I'm confused now...but Yui said..." She looked to me and I changed to my normal self. "Ohne-chan..."   
  
~*~*~*~*~  
  
Thought I'd just kinda leave it there..^^ ...But don't worry, I'll get the next chapter out sooner or later. ;p  
  
~*ComicMoon 


	11. Chapter 11: Summoning Suzaku

I love all the reveiws I'm getting for this story, I don't have alot, but they're all so nice, thank you all of you that have reveiwed this story! I tried to get this chapter out as fast I could, but I'm on a tight schedule so you may have to wait a bit. I tried to get this chapter out while still attempting to make it good, well, enjoy the chapter, you may have to wait a bit for the next  
  
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Chapter 11: Summoning Suzaku  
  
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(Kibou's PoV)  
  
There was an awkward silence, I didn't know how to answer her. It was a long awkward silence, I knew I should've kept quiet. "GET ME OUT OF HERE!!!!" yelled Genrou's voice from ahead. We quickly went to him and saw him tied up. "Chichiri you sure take your damn time when your trying to pull a joke! Kibou? Why the hell are you here?"  
  
"I came on my own," I said quietly.  
  
"What happened to your arm?" he asked seeing my clothing completely stained with blood that was now dripping. I covered it, I felt no pain but I had a numb feeling going throughout my body when I did touch it. Chichiri pulled up my sleeve and saw that my arm was growing very pale and the bone seemed to have cut through my skin since it was that broken. When Chichiri turned my arm over I almost felt like puking when I saw the bone poking out of my skin. Blood oozing around everywhere. Chichiri touch it and that when a horrible pain went throughout my body. I screamed in pain. He slowly turned it to ther other side, tears of pain blured my eyes.   
  
"How'd this happen?"  
  
I looked to Miaka, she looked really sad. I looked down so Chichiri wouldn't see my face. "I was trying to protect Miaka."  
  
"I'm so sorry, Ohne-chan, you were hurt because of me!"  
  
I faintly smiled. "Don't worry, this arm's dead so it doesn't feel much pain." I said as tears slid down my cheeks.  
  
"But your crying..."  
  
"I'm ok, don't worry."  
  
Miaka sniffled, she was crying. "You always say that, you almost drowned that one time when you tried to save me!"  
  
I bit my lip, I didn't remember that.. "Miaka...To tell you the truth...I lost my memory, I slowly gained it in the last 6 years."  
  
"We'll have to head back, no da. This seems pretty bad." said Chichiri still holding up my arm.  
  
I shook my head. "Don't end this mission because of me... I'm fine."  
  
"Ohne-chan.."  
  
"Well, I'll look around for Tamahome, all of you stay here, no da." he said changing back into Nakago. Miaka brought out a small hankercheif to wrap around my arm. A small peice of paper fell out, before I could ask, Genrou tightly wraped my arm so my vision went white in pain. I had forgotten what I was going to ask, but before I knew it, Miaka tied Genrou to a pole and ran off. I got up but then fell to the floor. "Miaka! Wait, don't go!" I yelled.  
  
I tried to run after her but my strength was getting weaker by every step I took because of the blood loss. Chichiri soon came back, "We have to get going, we're found out, no da...What happened? Where's Miaka?"  
  
"She went back to that damned tree!" I yelled getting up.  
  
Chichiri untied Genrou and Chichiri helped me up and quickly transported us to the tree. I held on to Chichiri as Genrou went to save Miaka before she was hit by numchucks. Genrou and Tamahome started to go into a battle, but I still couldn't do anything because of how rapidly I was losing my blood, the cloth didn't do much for me. I was begining to get weaker by the moment, but I had to help, knowing Tamahome, but now possesed, Tamahome could kill Genrou. I watched the fight helplessly. Genrou was getting completely beaten up we could only watched, when Genrou shot out flames from his fan and that's when Miaka woke up. It was when Genrou told us to escape we tried to but couldn't, something suddenly blocked off our power. Nakago appeared soon after, he was doing it! That loser! Chichiri transported us away from there but I managed to get up. I drew my sword. "Kibou, get down! You can't fight him!" Chichiri yelled in a low whisper.  
  
I came out to him, my arm was still bleeding as heavily as it had been. Nakago smriked when he saw me. "Your not going to be much of a fight."  
  
I held up my arm. "I have one good arm, I've survived off that for 6 years, give me what you got!"  
  
The symbol appeared on his forehead and threw me against a tree. I felt something come up my throat quickly and I coughed a painful cough that made my head throbb. I looked infront of me, blood, I should've excepted that.  
  
"Hey, leave her alone, you were fighting me!" Genrou yelled. Nakago turned to him and Tamahome started to choke Genrou with the chain of his numchucks. I quickly ran to Nakago but he immediatly sent me flying. I was too weak to catch my balance so I crashed to the ground and I felt more of my body break. I couldn't move anymore, but I tried to get up, when I did, I cut the chain of Tamahome's numchucked and collasped but I didn't faint. I heard a flute start to play, a counter spell tune...Who was playing that? The next thing I saw was a red light that surrouded the whole place and I was in Chichiri's arms. "Kibou are you ok?" he asked worriedly.   
  
I nodded. "That was pointless, wasn't it?" I said faintly. "I have wisdom my ass, I'm not smart at all...How's Genrou?"  
  
I looked to him, he fainted. I'm not surprised, he got beaten pretty bad. "He fainted, but he'll be ok.."  
  
I then looked over to Miaka, she was crying, before we were completely in Konan, I looked back, Tamahome was standing there looking at us. I looked back at Miaka. "Miaka, don't worry, he'll pull through." I said feeling more weak.  
  
"He's gone, nothing worked!" she sobbed.  
  
I fainted soon after, my head hurt and pain was all over my body. It felt as almost every bone in my body was broken, probably was. But my body couldn't take much more pain and just made me faint.  
  
"Kibou, thank you." echoed a female voice that had a familiarity to it. Black was all around me, I couldn't see who was talking or myself.  
  
"Who's there."  
  
A young lady, I reconized her immediatly, Kouran. "Kibou, thank you." she repeated in the same echoy ghost like tone.  
  
"F-for what?"  
  
"But you'll fail." she said her voice getting deeper and sounding evil. "...You shall fail." her eyes started to glow red and a black ghost arose from her and came towards me, It looked as if I was looking into the face of Death, it's eyes, all I could see were it's eyes, cold red eyes that showed death and despair.   
  
"You will fail all your goals!" a different voice seemed to say in a loud whisper right in my ear.  
  
My eyes snapped awake and I could feel cold sweat streaming down my forehead and I was breathing heavily. I looked to the side, Houjun was in a chair, sleeping. He didn't have his mask on. "Houjun?" I whispered.  
  
He opened his eye. When he saw me awake, he smiled. "Glad your awake. Mitsukake bandaged you up but didn't know if he wanted to heal you or Tasuki first, both of you are hurt pretty bad...Tasuki wants you to get healed first."  
  
"...That stubburn fool." I said looking to the ceiling. "I'm not that hurt."  
  
"Well, a bone did break through your arm so you know, you'll have to figure, no da. I'll get Mitsukake, no da."  
  
He got up and left the room, I looked up at the ceiling again, as if it came out of my dream, I faced Death once again, my mouth went dry and I couldn't scream. a snake emergred from the hood and slithered down to me. I couldn't move, I was still weak and I was completely paralyzed. The snake started to slither up my stomache and up to my chest, it came to my face and approached me as if to bite. I could see the vemoneous syliva dripping and burning onto the blanket. It hissed at me again. I screamed.  
  
Someone burst through the door. "What's wrong Kibou?!" Houjun exclaimed running to my side, the snake didn't disapear, it didn't look up at Houjun either, I looked back to the ceiling and a hundred bugs crawled around as I saw Death among it. I felt my body shaking as the snake continued to hiss. A claw came towards me from Death. "Kibou, talk to me! What's wrong?!"  
  
"Can't you see it?! Help me Houjun! Help!!"  
  
Houjun reached his hand out to me but then the snake was about to bite it. "No! Don't it'll bite you!"  
  
The claw reached me and started to choke me, I could feel it. "Houjun!" I said barely whispering.  
  
I don't know what happened next but I was out and in Houjun's arms. He was hugging me tightly. "Kibou, what's wrong?"  
  
My breathing quickened a bit but then slowed down. I couldn't speak, my mouth was still so dry. I kept shaking. He layed me down on the bed and nothing was there. "Mitsukake..come in." he said still looking at me worriedly. The door opened, I didn't turn my head, I didn't want to really see a stranger, an animal jumped on me...Tama? I looked to my side. "Juan?" I asked confused to see the familiar face of Juan as Mitsukake instead of a complete stranger.  
  
"So do you want to be healed first?"  
  
I was still shaking a bit. I wasn't sure. "Go ahead, Mitsukake." Houjun answered.  
  
He put his hand over my body. "Healing forces!"  
  
I felt the strength come back into my body and somehow, my bones seemed to realign. I sat up feeling wonderful. "Now I see why you became a doctor. Thanks Juan...Or Mitsukake. But does it really matter who you heal first?"  
  
"I can only heal one person a day." he answered.  
  
I nodded. "I see."  
  
"Get a bit of rest before you go around anywhere." he said leaving the room.  
  
Once the door was closed, I remembered, the horrible visions I had. "Are you ok, Kibou?"  
  
"I think so...But couldn't you see it? The snake? Death?"  
  
He shook his head. "I didn't see a thing."  
  
"I-I must've been hallucinating or something...Oh well, I'm ok now. Where's Miaka?"  
  
I heard someone run down the hallway and then someone burst through the door. "Miaka's missing!!" Kourin yelled.   
  
I jumped up immediatly, and we quickly came to a lake where the emperor had saved Miaka. Houjun checked her pulse. "She's ok!"  
  
I looked to Kourin, she was frowning....And Houjun said something that I didn't know of her, what was it? We went inside and I walked with Kourin inside as everyone went ahead.  
  
"Kourin.."  
  
"You could stop calling me Kourin." She said. "Just call me Nuriko, it jsut seems best. Besides, Kourin doesn't seem to fit me anymore since I'm accepting myself for what I am."  
  
I looked at her a bit confused. "For who you are?"  
  
She looked at me a bit strangely, then smiled. "You don't know, do you?"  
  
We both stoped. "I'm a man."  
  
My jaw dropped. I couldn't believe this, Kourin was too pretty to be a man! "I can't believe it!...You can't be!"  
  
She undid her shirt and I saw the exact proof. No breasts. I couldn't believe this.. "So your gay?"  
  
"I don't really like to put it that way." she...or he said.  
  
"Well, you are in love the the emperor, you know, liking the same sex...I mean, you know."  
  
He nodded and laughed a bit. "I guess your right...but I really wish, I could take Miaka's place.."  
  
"Yeah, considering, Miaka loves Tamahome."  
  
"But there's no chan-"  
  
"No." I said interupting him. "Yes, he did swollow codoku (I don't know if that's how you spell it, and I don't feel like looking it up, so I'm sounding it out...) but you should know that the love, that I've seen so far, is incredible. And knowing how stubburn Tamahome is, deep inside, he's still there, and he'll come through, for Miaka, his family, and everyone who's important to him. He won't ve gone."  
  
"You really look out for him don't you?"   
  
I nodded. "I think of Tamahome as a little brother..His family is like my family."  
  
We got inside, I saw Genrou in wraps, I felt bad, I was healed first...But who knows what would happen if I was healed the next day, those visions...I could've been literally scared to death. "You two took your time." Genrou said.  
  
I sat down against the wall on the floor and sighed. "We could do what we want, we have time."  
  
I looked around, one of them wasn't the real one, and I saw him right away. Why was he still here? Didn't they take him away yet? "Hey Chiriko." I called out.  
  
The blonde boy looked up to me, everyone looked to the two of us, now I understand, they were probably seeing if he made a move or not, he might just be here so they'd stop searching. "Were you the one who was playing the flute?"  
  
He nodded. "You play pretty well, can I see your flute?"  
  
He got out a small tannish flute and handed it to me. I looked at it, it was pretty plain. "Can I play it?"  
  
He hestitated for a moment. "Sure.."  
  
I felt good vibes from him, he wasn't evil, he couldn't be, maybe he was just confused... I brought it to my lips and started to play a tune, I had named it Cradle song, since, somehow, it seemed to fit. After, everyone was dead silent. "Who are you again?" he asked.   
  
I smirked and I looked to everyone, they were all glaring at me, telling me not to say a thing. "I'm Chiriko."  
  
Everyone sighed heavily. They saw it coming. The fraud looked stiffened. I smiled. "Don't worry, we won't hurt you, we would've done it weeks ago, when they knew that Chiriko was found, heck Chichiri knew for 6 years. What's your name?"  
  
He backed against the wall more. "A-amiboshi." he answered.  
  
"Why are you here?" I asked.  
  
He stayed silent and just looked down. "Your probably in this for every wrong reason." I said. "Who sent you?"  
  
"Nakago." he answered.  
  
I nodded. "Then that answers everything. Nakago. As I've seen, Nakago tends to munipulate everything to show a fake truth. What did he tell you?"  
  
"H-he told me..You guys were the ones that were going to start the war." he said a bit quietly.  
  
That low life bastard, what is he doing to these people? "You've been with us for a long time, right?" he nodded slowly. "You've seen around us long enough to see our personality, we want to bring peace, not war. Nakago is a blood thirsty bastard that loves war..more in likely. I'm pretty sure he's using the preistess of Seiryu for some sick purpose." I was starting to get really frustrated, Nakago frustrated me, I hated him.  
  
I tried calming myself. "Ok..I'm ok....Amiboshi..Your fighting on the wrong side."  
  
"..Then what should I do?"  
  
I thought for a moment, what could he do, he couldn't go back... "How about, since, you know, it'd be hard for you to choose either Suzaku or Seiryu, be neither,"  
  
Now everyone looked confused, including Amiboshi. "Yeah..They may come looking for you, so hide your energy as long as you can, so they can presume your dead and go to Sairou, Sairou has alot of nice people around there, I'm sure someone is bound to take you in."  
  
I got up and handed him his flute. "Let us summon Suzaku, we'll bring peace, not war, you could go now...If you want."  
  
He got up. "I guess your right...I'll be-"  
  
"Wait, You'd probably want some food to go on your journey, come on, come with me." He followed me out the door where I led him to the kitchen. "Your making a goood choice, Amiboshi. I knew you weren't really evil minded, just tricked. Do you have family?"  
  
"My Twin, Suboshi...He's a Seiryu seishi also.."  
  
I nodded slightly, I opened the doors to the kitchen, no one was in there since it was their break time. I started to fix him something so he could make it through the journey. "He's probably being manipulated by Nakago as well.....Amiboshi, after all this, I promise I'll come back for you in Sairou, after I kill Nakago. Just hang on till then, k?"  
  
I wraped the food in a small bag and handed it to him. Then I handed him a small pouch that was inside my dress. "You'll need money."  
  
"Thank you, but why are you doing this?"  
  
"You want this don't you?"  
  
I lead him outside and gave him a horse that he could use. He rode out of Konan, looking back constantly. I knew he felt uneasy about this, but I guess it was for the better. The storm hadn't quite let up but it was slowing down, he'd stop somewhere eventually. I went back inside before the storm got worse. Once I got there, was a fight going on, well there was, I missed it, Mitskake was leaning down and healing Tamahome. I walked over to them, we could summon Suzaku now.. Miaka looked so happy with Tamahome, Tamahome was happy as well. I looked up to the emperor, he looked a bit sad. Poor thing, he was in love with Miaka as well. Miaka looked up to me and smiled. "Ohne-chan! Tamahome came back!"  
  
I nodded. "Like I said."  
  
The rain had now stoped, the blue sky started to emerge. We were going to summon Suzaku soon now, all the Suzaku Seishi have gathered. In fact, as I found out soon enough, it was the next day!  
  
~*That night*~  
  
(Chichiri's PoV)  
  
I walked around the palace for a bit before I went to bed, I was a bit afraid for Kibou, especailly after what happened after she woke up. I walked near her room, her light was on, it was late..Why was it on? I opened the door slightly, she was in there, on the bed, hugging her knees and shaking. I walked in and she looked at me, deep fear was in her eyes. When I took a step near her, she back away from me. "Don't, stay away!"   
  
She wasn't seeing me, what was wrong with her? I tried to walk over to her but she kept backing away. "...Houjun..where are you?" I heard her mutter.  
  
I held my hand out to her. "It's me, Kibou, I'm right here."  
  
I took off my mask and her eyes seemed less in fear. "Houjun.."  
  
I came and sat next to her. "What's wrong?"  
  
She then hugged me around my waist and started to sob. "Every time I try to sleep, it's right there! Death! It keeps attacking me!"  
  
I patted her back gently. "It was just a nightmare, don't worry."  
  
She kept shaking. "It won't stop, I don't know why they even started..."  
  
"Don't worry, just go back to sleep, you need the strength." I said laying her down and covering her with her sheets. She held on to my arm. "Please don't leave." She had a tight grip on it, she was really afraid... I kneeled down to my knees. "Ok.."  
  
"Thank you.." She soon closed her eyes and went to sleep. How long is this going to last....? Why did it start? Everytime, I swear, she was loosing her mind and acted like a child shooken up by a nightmare. I tried to get up but she had a tight grip on me, she was asleep but she was still frightened. "Houjun.." she muttered.  
  
I looked to her, her eyes were open. "You could sleep on the bed if you like, I seemed to stop having these nightmares when your here...So please don't leave."  
  
With an uneasy feeling came over when I layed down next to her. "..Thank you." she whispered and soon drifted into sleep. I blew out the candle and soon went to sleep myself, tomorrow was a big day, I needed rest, and so did she.  
  
~*~*~  
  
I woke up with Kibou already up and about, I guess she was right, she didn't scream or anything while I was here. Why was that? Kibou wandered about somewhere else as Miaka prepared for the ceremony to summon suzaku, everything was now going smoothly. We were going to summon Suzaku and get all this over with...But Kibou, she's Miaka's older sister...What if she has to go back with her?  
  
We were ready to summon Suzaku..But, something didn't feel right. I helped Miaka say what she had to say, and after she was done, nothing happened. Somehow, we had failed to summon Suzaku..  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
There! Finished with this chapter, I think that long enough, I don't know how long it'll take for the next chapter but I'll try to get it out soon!  
  
~*Cosmicmoon 


	12. Chapter 12: Pressing forward

School's finally out, I finally I have time to write! Yay! The chapters will be out sooner and stuff..^^ Sorry for keeper you guys waiting. Enjoy the chapter  
  
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Chapter 12: Pressing forward  
  
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A flute started to play, all eyes fell on Kibou. She smirked and put the flute down, the real Kibou..she was missing! "I came just in time, didn't I?"  
  
"Ohne-chan..?"  
  
"You have failed at summoning Suzaku." she said coldly. "Now, you will all die."  
  
She started to play the melody that could kill us all. Miaka slowly walked towards her. "Ohne-chan, it isn't you! It isn't! It can't be you!"  
  
Miaka fell to her knees. "Ohne-chan.."  
  
Another flute..or something that sounded like a flute started to play, I reconized the melody, it was one of the counter melodys. Everyone looked over to the door, Kibou stood there, holding herself up with her right leg, bleeding from the exact spot where she was hit by the robber quite some time ago now. The fraud went over to Kibou and knocked her to the floor.  
  
"In case it didn't work, I left a little surprise. If you didn't know, Kibou was stabed here. By me!" Her form started to change and it was a form of a man, he had white and black painted strips on his face. "There was poison that could only be effective at a certain point."  
  
He started to disapear slowly. "First the visions, two the bleeding where I injected it starts up, then she faints, finally she dies. And there's no cure!..Good luck."  
  
He completely disapeared, we all ran to Kibou, I picked her up, she was barely awake. Miaka ran up to her cry, Miaka hugged her tightly. "Ohne-chan! Ohne-chan! wake up, please wake up!"  
  
"I-I'm fine Miaka." she said slowly sitting up. "The fire. It's still burning, we have to try again," she whispered.  
  
Miaka got up and looked to the blazing fire. "Your right..But Ohne-chan..."  
  
"I'm fine, come on, I can do this."  
  
I helped her to her spot where she pushed me away showing that she could stand on her own. Miaka tried again, but this time, Taiitsukun appeared and freaked everyone out. Taiitsukun ignored them and looked to Kibou. "Chiriko, you are critical to this team, you cannot die now."  
  
She rose her hand and sparks came from it and enveloped Kibou. Her leg wound healed and the bleeding disapeared, as well as all the blood. She got up slowly. "Thank you, Taiitsukun."  
  
"As for the rest of you, you will each receive something for all the hard work you have done so far."  
  
A light shone above us and we all received something, I received beads, improved looking prayer beads, they were still the same ones Kibou gave me, but these had more designs on it. I looked over to Kibou, her flute was now silver. Tamahome soon relized he gets nothing and started to fuss a bit, but after a bit of a talk about some sort of thing called a shinzaho, we were all sent out of the room for some reason and we waited since everyone but Miaka was kicked out. "What exactly happened to you, Kibou?" Tamahome asked.  
  
"The impersonator, his name was Tomo, he made himself an illusion of me and put into effect the poison that had been flowing through my body. It only had to be triggered. It was triggered when I was starting to have those visions but they stoped now. Taiitsukun healed me so I no longer have to worry."  
  
"Well, at least your better, no da." said Houjun  
  
"The shinzaho...Toroki, she always talked about a man named Tatara...something about him and the shinzaho, I never really paid attention too much...God, I wish I did now." Kibou said muttering a bit.  
  
Miaka soon came out, she had a sad look on her face but then she looked up and smiled. "Come on, we have to get ready to go to Hokkan."  
  
I walked with Kibou to her room since there wasn't much else to do and she didn't mind. Once we got there, there was ink dripping from a brush on a paper on her desk. She went over to look at it. "Oh yeah, tommorow night's the star festival, do you want to go?"  
  
"Sure, no da."  
  
She sat on her bed, she stayed silent for a bit, not waiting for me to start a conversation but trying to figure out what to say. She got up, "I haven't seen Namame in a long time...I need to check up on her."  
  
She went to the door and turned back to look at me. "Do you want to come with?"  
  
I nodded slightly and followed her out. Once out of the gates, she knew exactly where she was going. We came to the shop where I had helped out the lady there to carry Kibou home that one day.  
  
"Namame? Namame?" she called leaning over the counter. "Namame?"  
  
I noticed the jewelry was all taken down, there was a sign that said it was closed, but I heard from Kibou, the shop was her home and she just had to go around the back. Kibou stood strait up, a worried look on her face. She went around to the back and opened the curtains. She gasped. "Namame?!"  
  
I followed her in. Namame was there...but I felt not really anything from her, she was an inch from death...  
  
Her body was a bloody corpse, she was stabbed in the back by a sword and thrown aside on the floor. Kibou bent down to her. "Namame? Namame? Please don't do this! Namame!!"  
  
Namame was pale, her eyes were wide open and a pool of blood was at her mouth. Kibou picked her up tears blured her eyes and quickly streamed down her now pale cheeks. "Namame....Juan...We need to get Juan!!" She set her down gently and came up to me.  
  
"Houjun, we need to get Juan! Please, we have to get him..He has to heal her!!" She sobbed into my chest. "We have to get him, Namame's..Namame's.."  
  
Tears blured my eyes, feeling her pain, I embraced her softly. "She can't be dead!" she cried. "Namame...She can't be!"  
  
"We...need..juan..." she said over her hiccups.   
  
"...Kibou, Mitsukake..he-" I refused to say it, the fact that it would put her in more pain, even though she knew.  
  
"...Kibou...Dear...." I heard a faint whisper.  
  
Kibou quickly looked to Namame and quickly came to her side. "Namame, just wait, I'll bring someone who can heal you. Just wait, please hold on!"  
  
"I'm too old, I've lived my life, it had to end sooner or later...I knew I'd be able to see your face before I died..."  
  
Kibou tried to speak while trying to control her hiccups, but couldn't. "W-who, did this t-to you?"  
  
"A seiry--"  
  
Her voice cut short, her life force completely disapeared. I looked down, then back to Kibou holding Namame. She was trembling. "Why?" she asked getting up again putting Namame down. "Why couldn't I go to Juan...? I-I couldn't get him...I could've saved her."  
  
"Kibou, it wasn't you.."  
  
"Seiryu....A seiryu seishi did this...Nakago's the only one...the only one that wants to piss me off like this!" She turned around to me, behind the tears and the greif and saw the anger that filled her eyes. A faint fed glow emitted from around her.   
  
"Kibou, calm down." I said coming over to her slowly. "Come on, we have to give Namame a bruial."  
  
The glow immediatly disapearedas her eyes widened. "Namame!...your right..."  
  
Biting her lip she came to Namame and pulled the sword from her back and picked her up. "There's a cemetary just outside the gates near this store." I said trying not to say anything that could make her cry anymore.  
  
"O..k.." she answered. She got a sheet and covered her with it. We then carried her just a minute's worth of walking and then saw a man there digging a hole to bury someone  
  
"E-excuse...me, s-sir." she said her voice very cracked and seemed that she couldn't finish.  
  
"We need have someone we want to bury here." I said finishing her sentance.  
  
He came out. "And who is this?"  
  
"Namame...she was the owner of-"   
  
"Namame? She died?! I thought she'd live forever!" he said interuping me. "Well, I can make another for who this was for, so we can bury Namame here, is that her?"  
  
Kibou nodded. "I'm sorry, I just didn't know what to do...So we brought her here."  
  
The man nodded. "Yeah, that's fine, your that girl that worked for Namame for a bit, aren't you?"  
  
She nodded again. "Thank you."  
  
She gently laid Namame down there and the man buried her. Kibou then again fell to her knees and cried. "I can't even have proper funeral for her...I don't have time..."  
  
The man looked at her with great sympathy. "I can arrange that, there's alot of people who respected Namame so I could tell them all and have a proper burial for her."  
  
"Can you really do that?"  
  
"Of course." he answered holding out a hand to help her up. "Don't you worry, I'll make sure it's the best that it can be. While your away, don't worry."  
  
"I can't thank you enough sir.....thank you."  
  
"Now go on, I'll organize this whole thing, it should be ready in 4 days."  
  
Kibou bit her lip. "I might be gone by then...But ok, as long as I know she has a funeral, thank you." She turned away and headed back into town. I followed her, she came back to Namame's shop. Stains of blood were thoughout the inside of it. She picked up the bloody blade and then wiped it off with her dress. It had seiryu on it. She found a case and straped that to her other side, then put the sword into the case. I could feel the anger from her while she did this. She began to mutter lowly, "...Nakago...he'll pay...I swear to god, he is going to pay, that damn bastard..."  
  
She disapeared right before my eyes, I tried to sense her immediatly, she was back at the palace. I looked around the store again, there was a small note on there. I walked over to it, the paont on the paper was very much dry,as if made a day before.  
  
"Kibou" it read. "To tell you now, is better than never. I was most important to my preistess and seishi because I had the power to see the future. I saw my death coming and didn't do anything about it. Don't blame yourself, I leave you with one last message though, think it through carefully, it'll make sense when the time come...When they come together and it's all gone, the taste of death will be very near, but will be saved by the hand of care....It'll all make sense in the future, I promise....I'm sorry I left you like this.."  
  
It was written on a scroll so I rolled it up and teleported myself to the palace. I felt a strong force coming from Kibou so I followed it. A firey red aura surounded her and she was training intensly with her sword, I held my staff so I came to Kibou and blocked her sword coming down with my staff, she was incredibly strong right now. Her eyes were dull and there was nothing but anger in the teary eyes. She stoped immediatly when she saw me. "Hou..jun.."  
  
She turned away, "I need to train, if I don't train, I won't be stronger than Nakago!"   
  
I made her put her hand down. "His power is physical attacks and everything that can hurt you badly, Tamahome would be the best one for that because that's power of being a seishi, your power's wisdom..Let Tamahome handle that, you are strong, but with out a power in it, you can't win."  
  
The red aura disapeared and she put down her sword. "Then I'm worthless.."  
  
"Your power is wisdom, if we didn't have a smart person like you, we'd probably be dead...I'd probably be dead."  
  
She dropped her sword and looked down. "It's not fair..Toroki, Namame...They both died when I came around, I'm afraid of what might happen next to the people I care for. And you, your like a brother to me, Houjun...If anything happened to you, I don't know what I'd do."  
  
"The journey ahead is going to be a dangerous one Kibou, but we all know that. We might not all survive, and I promise you that I'll survive and protect you." I... I just completely opened up to her... I might actually be....  
  
"Thank you, Houjun...I'm sorry for all the trouble I caused you today." she said in almost a whisper and ran off.  
  
~*~*~*~*~  
  
Ok, Now that I have time, the next chapter should be out soon. Sorry for taking so long, you know those end of the year things, you always want to hang out with your friends and stuff...Well, yeah....I have the entire summer to do that so I'll be writing more. ^^  
  
~*CosmicMoon 


	13. Chapter 13: Chiriko

To tell you the truth, I was going to have Namame die, but then I didn't think she would die that early in the story, I thought I was going to have her die like..I dunno, my hands just wrote themselves and then I'm like, ok, how's that happen? ^^;; Yeah... Ok, that's weird...Man, I actually did that...yeah I was planning to do it maybe...You know, I don't remember because I'm a air head and a dumb ass, *anyway*  
  
~*~*~*~*~  
  
Chapter 13: Chiriko  
  
~*~*~*~*~  
  
(Kibou's PoV)  
  
I came to my room, I layed down on my bed and my head buried in my pillow. I soon turned my head to the side and I could feel the tears stream down my eyes onto the pillow. Why Namame? Why did he have to pick on Namame? I wasn't going to get the up the rest of the day, so I fell asleep right there, I was tired..There was nothing else I wanted to do..  
  
"Kibou-san.." a little boy's voice echoed. The voice was unfamiliar to me.  
  
The blackness around me disapeared and I came to a feild of grass filled with flowers at every step. A soft breeze blew against me and blew the flowers and grass. Ahead of me a child sat with it's back turned from me. I walked up to the child. I saw that the child was a little boy, he looked 9 but I could see that he was older than that. He looked up to me and smiled. He had purple hair put up in a pony tail that stuck up and he had big green eyes that were sparkling against the sun that was shining high above us.  
  
"Kibou-san." he repeated getting up.   
  
"Who are you?" I asked.   
  
"Ou Doukun, but I was once known as Chiriko."  
  
"Chiriko? If your suppose to be, why am I in your place?" I asked lowering myself to his level. Then I sat down, he sat as well.   
  
"You came here through a book that I made."  
  
"A book?"   
  
He nodded and his face turned serious. "You see, I did this so the same fate won't be met. And I chose you because I knew it wouldn't be met like that. Also to help you, I was the reason you lost your memory but of course, like any normal person, it creeped back over time..But just know, the book wrote itself, whatever you chose to do, it wrote down, once the adventure's over, the book will finish and never open again."  
  
I was still confused about one thing. "So if your suppose to be in my place right now, aren't you alive, and if you weren't Chiriko you wouldn't be able to write the book and I would've never come here, right?"  
  
He shook his head. "I basically exsist in a different time and space where the book has already gone through, a demension where you don't exsist."  
  
"Why?"  
  
He looked down. "In that demension, you commited suicide. And when I chose you, I wanted to change that fate and brought you here where you've been surviving well."  
  
"...But...I want to know more about myself." I said.  
  
"You will." He said with no doubt in his voice. "In the place where the fate of Chiriko is faced, you'll get it."  
  
"Why are you telling me this?"  
  
He smiled. "To help you...Also, one last thing, when one dies, it's not because of the person that's there, it might be if the person pushed the person to that much emotional stress or if that person killed a person, so you did nothing to Namame or Toroki, they were just happy you were there."  
  
  
  
"...riko-sama.." a woman's voice called out.  
  
Everything around me disapeared to blackness and I heard knocking at my door. "Chiriko-sama." the woman's voice repeated.  
  
"Come in." I said sitting up. I relized a blanket was over me...Houjun came in to check up on me.. The woman came in, it was a maid. "The emperor requests your presence."  
  
I got up and stretched. I tied my hair back in a low pony tail and followed the maid where Hotohori was with a map laid out. I came over to him and the maid bowed and left. "I was wondering what your opinion on the journey to Hokkan would be?"  
  
I studied the map for a bit. "I've never been to Hokkan, but I'd say that those canals would be the best option."  
  
Someone opened the door. It was Miaka. "Miaka, good morning." Hotohori said cheerfully.  
  
Miaka smiled. "I just wanted to check up one everyone, good morning to you Hotohori, and you Ohne-chan."  
  
She closed the door and we listened to her walk off. "So she's your sister." Hotohori finally asked.  
  
"I think so, I completely lost my memory so I wouldn't really know.."  
  
"Ah, I'm sorry I asked." he said. "Well, thank you for your help."  
  
I bowed and left the room. "MIAKA!!" I heard Nuriko call out. I went towards that direction and saw Miaka waving goodbye to Chichiri and runningtowards Nuriko. Miaka said 'Hi' to me and walked off with Nuriko, I guess Miaka was limiting her talking with me since I didn't rememeber anything. I came and sat down next to Chichiri.  
  
"Are you feeling better?" he asked.  
  
I smiled, thinking to what the real Chiriko said. "Yeah, I had a good sleep...Are you still up to go the star fesitval?"  
  
He looked to me a bit shocked, even though he was wearing a mask, I could see how he looked. "Yeah, of course, no da."  
  
"Thank you." I said. "..And thank you for yesterday, I really appreciate what you did, and what you made me relize."  
  
He looked forward. "Glad I could help, no da." The lake was glistening under the sunlight. I could see both Chichiri's and my reflection in the water, almost too clear. Somehow I remembered, the waters from where I'm from, weren't ever this clear.  
  
"Miaka seems a bit upset about having to fight Yui."  
  
I nodded. "So that's what you were talking to her about...yeah, my visions, they showed me Miaka and Yui as children and they were always playing and coming over to each other's house, Yui seemed like another little sister...And when they were older, they were still stuck to each other...And they were suddenly torn apart. Who wouldn't be upset? That stupid bastard Nakago..Son of a bitch..."  
  
(Chichiri's PoV)  
  
"We can't do much about him." I said trying to change the subject. "But, he'll die sooner or later, and it'll be painful one for all that he's done..."  
  
"Chichiri...What if I was never here as Chiriko..What if I never came into you life?" she asked still looking down into the pond.  
  
I wasn't sure how to answer that. "...All that matters, is your the only one left before I actually became who I am today, and I want to hang onto that..So I would protect you." I doing it agaib...I can't help it, I just feel that I had to tell her..  
  
She got up. "Well, I'm going to get ready, it's the last night here in Konan for a while, I want to look nice." She ran back inside, I decided to get up I really had nothing to do untill night fell.  
  
~*~*~*~  
  
We were going to go with Miaka, Tasuki, and Nuriko around the festival, we just needed to wait for Kibou, who for some reason, was taking forever, along with Nuriko and Miaka. Usually, she takes a minute or two in the first thing she could find and comes out, but she said she wanted to look nice so I guess she's having trouble picking things out.  
  
"Damn, girls take too long," Said Tasuki.  
  
"Ok!" said Miaka from behind the door. "We're ready!"  
  
She opened the door and Miaka was in a dress that was somewhat nice. Behind her, I could barely see Kibou. "Come on ohne-chan!"  
  
"Screw that, I'm not going out in public like this." she said refusing to come out from behind Miaka. Nuriko then pulled her out from behind Miaka. Tasuki and I both looked directly at her. Kibou was in a full dress, for once in her life, her hair was down, she actually had make-up on, and even more surprising was that she had jewelry on too. She looked incredible, I had never seen her like this before. Fromwhat her face looked like, she didn't like it.  
  
"Doesn't Ohne-chan look pretty?" asked Miaka going behind Kibou.  
  
"Incredible, no da." I said meaningfully, Kibou blushed and looked down. "She looks ok..now come on! let's get going!" said Tasuki pushing us all out of the palace.  
  
Once we got there, Miaka and Nuriko went to get some sweets. The three of us just sat on a bench. "Aren't you going to have any, no da?" I asked Kibou.  
  
She shook her head. "I don't like sweets."  
  
"I never knew that no da." I said as she got up, "Neither did I..'till now."   
  
Miaka ran over to Kibou. "Ohne-chan, I found your favorite drink!" she said excitly holding her hand and dragging her to a stand. She came back with a cup in her hand, Iced tea. "Another intresting thing I figured out, she knows more about me than I do, pretty scary actually."  
  
Miaka came and sat next to us soon after. "Hey Miaka." Kibou started. "..Did I ever answer you after that letter?"  
  
Everyone looked to Kibou shocked. She was speaking as if she had her memory of her past. Miaka was the most shocked. "..No..The day it got to you, or the post office said it would, I heard the news that you were missing, Jason went to jail, dad died...and..." Miaka covered her mouth and looked at me with tears in her eyes. Then she looked away. "You wouldn't want to know.."  
  
She got up and followed Nuriko and Tasuki. Kibou was stiff, watching her run off. She bit her lip and turned to me. "Come on, let's enjoy the night while we can."  
  
I lost track of where she went in an hour, Nuriko and Tasuki were roaming around together and Miaka wandered off somewhere. I couldn't find Kibou anywhere, I can't really take my eyes off her for a few seconds or she'll disapear on me. She could do that while I was still watching her and she'll teleport herself away. I started to go into stores, but she wasn't in any of them, finally, I went into a Pub. She was in there, sitting at the counter seat with her head down. I came and sat next to her. There were drips of water on the table, she was crying, still holding a small cup with Sake in it.  
  
"Kibou." I said but she didn't look up. She looked up in a bit though to drink the rest of her shot. Then she poured some more, I could see there was only a little left in the large jug. I made her put her hand down with the cup. "Kibou, stop it."  
  
She turned to look and me, tears were still streaming from her face, she had no make up on in her eye lashes or her cheeks so nothing smeared. She still looked the same, except crying. I paid the bartender and helped Kibou up. She couldn't walk strait and leaned against me for support. She soon stoped holding onto me and almost fell to the floor, I quickly caught her. I leaned down. "Come on Kibou, get on my back."  
  
She did so very slowly, and she was going to pass out soon. "I'm sorry, Houjun..I ruined your night."  
  
There was a faint gasp, she passed out. I started towards the palace, she was pretty much limp. I got her to her room as fast as I could and layed her down and covered her with her sheets. I felt her forehead, it was burning. Mitsukake would be asleep by now so I got her a cold towel and put it on her forehead. She was drunk, the first time in 6 years I had seen her drunk, actually only about 3 years, but, Kibou drunk. I wish I could help her through what she's going through. She has her past coming back to her, and it's not a good one, and then my past, which she was apart of and I could see that she feels that she's the reason Kouran died. So much she has to remember of her past that's greiving, I shouldn't be surprised that I found her in a Pub. She was depressed, but she hated to show it for many reasons.  
  
"I'm nothing but trouble.." she muttered.  
  
I looked back to her, her eyes were closed and I could see that see was asleep. "..Nothing but trouble..." she muttered again.  
  
I took the towel from her forehead and washed it in the icy water and placed it on her forehead again. I really wanted to help her. I don't know how to though, she's suffering so much.. I know she doesn't like to show it, she hates it when people give her sympathy, it makes her more sad...I pulled up a chair, I didn't want to leave her tonight. She was sick..  
  
(Kibou's PoV)  
  
I woke up feeling a dry towel on my forehead. I took it off and looked to my side, Chichiri was hanging off the egde of my bed. I saw a bucket next to him with water in there. I didn't have a headache like I thought I would after all that I drank. Chichiri took care of me. I can't believe he stayed here with me and took care of me even though I drank myself silly. He got up pretty soon. "Thank you..You didn't have to watch me all night."  
  
"I was worried about you." he said stretching.  
  
"Thanks." I said getting up.  
  
I took my hair down and grabbed my brush. "We're leaving to Hokkan today, right?"  
  
He nodded. "Yeah, come on, we get to see the ship today."  
  
I put my hair back in a pony tail today, I didn't feel like putting it up in a bun, it's too frustrating to do when I'm tired. I straped both the sword Toroki gave me and the sword that Namame was killed by at my sides. I picked my flute up as well and tucked it into my robe. "Ok, lets go."  
  
"You carry two swords with you now, no da," Chichiri stated as we headed to see the vessel.  
  
"..The one that killed Namame.." I said coldly now remembering, "Is going to die with the blade they killed Namame with, and they're going to get a death that is twice as bad as Namame's."  
  
I soon saw the ship, the size of it and the magnificance made me forget all about everything that's happened and put me in a better mood. "It's huge!" I piped cheerfully.   
  
Miaka came to the ship soon with a huge bag, Tasuki, I found out, was carried onto the ship, him being afraid of the water. Tamahome started to tease him. Tasuki frowned. "SHUT UP! You should talk, after being dumped by Miaka!"  
  
Dumped?..Nah, Miaka wouldn't do that...I walked to her. She apparently didn't care what Tasuki said and took out something...I knew what it was called, but wasn't quite sure...a camera..? It made pictures...  
  
"Hey everyone, look over here!"  
  
She took a picture and a peice of paper came out the other end. A picture started to show and it showed what she took. I remember those...I'm not sure how or why though. They looked familiar but very strange. She took a picture of all of us and then ran around taking pictures of everyone seprately or in pairs, she took a picture of Chichiri and I together and then ran off. Hotohori soon asked Tamahome if he wanted to bring his family here. Delighted, Tamahome gladly accepted. He took Miaka with him I ran to him. "I want to see the family before I leave too!" I said walking with them.  
  
We stopped by a store and bought each of the kids a present. Nuriko snuck up in the store and scared us, or tried to then followed us. We walked to the small town and when we came close I looked to Tamahome. "I'll race ya."  
  
"What you think you can beat me?" Tamahome teased.  
  
"We'll see.. Ready?.. Go!"  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Oo, nice place to end, ain't it, and I got it out the same day I talked to you Water Muse, aren't you happy? ^^ Well at least the same day I posted it, I don't know when it'll show on the website.  
  
Sorry I took so long, I couldn't think of what to write....  
  
~*CosmicMoon 


	14. Chapter 14: Life's not Fair

~*~*~*~*~  
  
Chapter 14: Life's not fair  
  
~*~*~*~*~  
  
(Kibou's PoV)  
  
"Yuiren! I'm home!" I yelled. "Chuei! Shunkei! Gyokuran!!!"  
  
I reached the door first; something didn't feel right though. I froze at the door. "Yuiren?"  
  
There was no answer. I opened the door, it was dark in there, I looked around, Tamahome's father...he..I tried to sense his life force but I couldn't get anything, no sign of living, I looked around, the children they were all sprawled across the floor.   
  
"Sissy.. Big brother.." I heard a faint whisper. Tamahome pushed me out of the way. "Yuiren!" He picked her up and I came to his side. "Welcome home Sissy..big brother....and you too big sister." She said looking to Miaka.  
  
"...Please..Don't leave again big brother..sissy.."  
  
With one arm I held Yuiren with Tamahome. "Don't worry, big brother won't leave again!"  
  
I stayed silent, I couldn't speak..Tears filled my eyes as I watched whom I felt as a little sister die..I got up; "I won't let her die..I won't!"  
  
I concentrated and tried to find Mitsukake, I found him soon and I teleported myself to him. "Mitsukake! Please, come with me, my sister, she's..she's, please come with me!" I yelled grabbing his arm.  
  
"Take me to her." Mitsukake said seeing my teary face. I instantly teleported back to the house in front of Tamahome. He was crying even harder than before. "Yuiren.."  
  
I fell to my knees. "Yuiren?" I felt her face, it was cold. "Yuiren!" I tried to feel for her life force but I could feel nothing. "No..Not you too...Yuiren!!"  
  
I heard a flute start to play...I've heard that before...I got up and walked outside, I heard him say that he was the one who did this. I looked up to the person who said it. Amiboshi...That's right, Amiboshi said he had a twin, Suboshi...He must've come to avenge his brother..They probably thought that we killed him...But he still.. He still killed them.. I drew the sword that Seiryu was on and walked to him..  
  
"So you were the one.." Tamahome started calmly but in a cold tone. "You killed them!" There was a burst of wind that swirled around him, Suboshi swung something towards him but Tamahome blocked, shocked, and I could only watch what was happening. A serge of power suddenly came into Tamahome and a strong red glow surrounded him, he started to beat the crap out of Suboshi. I back away; Tamahome's gone crazy...I kept going until I ran into Mitsukake. I turned to face him, "I'm sorry I dragged you into this."  
  
"You were only trying to save her." He said in a soothing tone. Another seiryu presence, I felt another Seiryu presence, I looked around and a blue flash of light struck Tamahome and Suboshi disappeared. Another Seiryu Seishi introduced herself, Soi..Nuriko went and calmed Tamahome down. Miaka was shaking, afraid of what Tamahome turned into. I went back inside, Tamahome followed me. They were actually gone..They were all gone. I can't believe this, it couldn't be true. I turned around and came to Yuiren's body, I picked her up. It was as if she was still alive. Her soft hair, her sweet cuteness when she slept, her smile...They were all there. She looked as if she was asleep. But I could feel her body's coldness, she wasn't warm anymore.. Just like when Toroki or Namame died, they were cold. Yuiren seemed so fragile. Tears streamed down my face when I looked at her..she looked so alive..Why did this have to happen, what is Chiriko trying to do to me. He might've saved my life from my world, but what about here?..I guess there are a few important things that are keeping me alive here.   
  
I heard someone come in, I looked over and saw Mitsukake. I stood up with Yuiren still in my arms. "I couldn't save her, any of them, I couldn't save the ones I love ..I could never save the ones I love."  
  
Mitsukake put his hand on my shoulder. "It wasn't your fault."  
  
Tamahome came out with his head down. "..I have to..bury..them.."  
  
I wiped the tears away from my eyes. "..I'll help you."  
  
We carried the bodies to a certain point. We made them all graves, but I couldn't bury them, innocent children, not even involved in any of this. And the father, they didn't deserve to die like this.. None of them did. I watched Tamahome bury his family, I turned and cried into Mitsukake's chest. "It's not fair.." I whispered. "Those poor children...It just isn't right.."  
  
Mitsukake patted my back. "There was nothing you could've done."  
  
I sniffled. "But there was..If I came to check up on them sooner, Namame and Tamahome's family both..I could've saved them if I was there sooner."  
  
I turned back to Tamahome and saw him burying the gifts that he bought for them too. I let go of Mitsukake and ran off. I couldn't bear this, I saw Miaka walking towards Tamahome. I ran past her and came to where Nuriko was, I ran past him as well, but stopped at the tree he was at, I fell to the ground and buried my head in my knees. The past two days that were filled with death that I could've stopped.. I was always off time. I was always too late, there was always nothing that I could do. I got up again, "I'm just going to head back." I said with my head down to Nuriko.  
  
I started to run again, and I ran as fast as I could into the city and to the palace. Everyone around me, they were starting to close they're shops, they took a glance at me and went back to their work. I ran into the palace and I tried to find my room as fast I could, I climbed into my bed and started to rock myself. They were my family, they treated me as if I was their own, the father, he was like my father..that's why I called him that..He treated me like I was his daughter when I was home.. It was my home, the family that I never had, the family that I found but wasn't mine, but became mine.  
  
Now I only have my little brother left, Tamahome..Of course there is my real family, but they're still a blur... Tamahome and Miaka, my two little siblings. There was a knock at my door. "Kibou, are you ok, no da?"  
  
I didn't speak, I only looked down as more tears streamed down. "Can I come in, no da."  
  
"Yes.." I said quietly, but he seemed to hear so he opened the door. I stopped rocking myself but kept hugging my knees.  
  
(Chichiri's PoV)  
  
I slowly approached her and sat next to her. She kept hugging her knees then started to rock herself. I was afraid to ask her what happened, it seemed that she was would break if I did. She looked at me and her gentle arms clenched me around my neck. She felt fragile and light, as if she would actually break. I held her in my arms as well. I felt her tears at the back of my neck and I felt them soak in my hair. "It's not fair, those poor children...it just isn't fair!"  
  
Now I understand, something happened to Tamahome's family, they must've been killed... I patted her back and tried to comfort her. "They..They died.." she muttered. I tried not to ask, I couldn't, it would make her cry more..I really didn't want that, I didn't even want to see her crying. It was painful, every time, it was because someone died, she would just break then...Those were really the only times...But there was so much death in her life, she's become for fragile it seems. Her emotions are so thin. Now it seems she's afraid to get attached to anyone. The suzaku seishi, she doesn't talk too much with them. It only seems to be me, she doesn't seem to like to talk to anyone else..  
  
"Everyone I get close to..they die....."  
  
She pulled away from me and looked away. "I don't want to be around you to much now Houjun, I'm afraid for you."   
  
"Don't be, remember, I promised I'd stay alive and protect you."  
  
"I could've saved them, if only I came earlier." She said looking down. "I could've.."  
  
"...What happened..?" I asked but it slipped out, curiosity took me over and I couldn't help it. She turned back to me. Her eyes were red and swollen and her breathing had quickened. I never liked to see that, it pained me.. I just made it worse by asking her what happened.  
  
"..Amiboshi's twin brother..He thought we killed Amiboshi...and he ki-ki..."  
  
I embraced her gently in my arms. "That's enough, you don't have to say anymore." She coughed a few times but she didn't hug back this time, she laid her head down on my lap, her breathing pace slowed down and her sniffled started to stop. She just laid there and didn't move, my arm was hanging off her side so my hand was in front of her. She touched the ring that was on that hand, it sparkled against the setting sun. She pushed my hand with the ring and I my hand dangle there and let her do that. Her hand dropped and after a few minutes I heard her snoring softly. I picked her up and gently set her down under the covers.  
  
I had a rough past...but she has a rough past and present..She went through my past, and now she's going through a rough present, we all are, but her especially. Everything that's happened to her, I feel sorry for her. People she cared deeply about died in the past two days, by the same person, Nakago. But of course, he didn't care what was going on, who was dying, because he was the one sending them out. Miaka's friend, she would never order this.. It's not like her, but Nakago, he would defiantly start all this, just to push people to their limit.   
  
We were setting out to Hokkan tomorrow, Seiryu is going for the same thing we are, there's going to be a fight and not all of us will survive. Both Suzaku and Seiryu have powers..But I don't know how it may turn out. I can't die though, I had been with her constantly for 3 years and to leave her after all this, it wouldn't be right. I could see that it would crush her. If any of the Suzaku seishi died, it would crush her. I just hope she's up to go to Hokkan..but then again, she wouldn't want to stay behind. She would hate to be left behind, Hotohori would be th only one left here, and she doesn't really know him at all, I doubt that she plans to either.  
  
I got up and went to my room, the last few days have been a mess, and I guess she's trying her best..She always tries to force herself to cheer up and forget whats happened, she's alot like Miaka, she likes to not think about the stress she feels. She's experiance so many people's deaths in this world, she either saw them die or was about there when they died. In this world at least, in her world, I can't imagine the mess there is for her waiting if she returns.  
  
~*~*~  
  
I came to check up on Kibou in the morning. I knocked, but there was no answer, she was probably still asleep. I opened the door slowly and saw her bed made and her room completely empty. "Kibou?"  
  
"Yes?"  
  
I jumped at the sudden voice behind me that I didn't even hear. I turned around and Kibou was standing there, smiling. "Good morning, Chichiri!" she said brightly.  
  
"Good morning, no da." I replied.  
  
"Come on, we're leaving today! are you ready?" She asked starting to head towards the ship. "Yeah, no da."  
  
We came to the ship and Miaka, Tamahome, Mitsukake, and Nuriko came back. They explained what happened to Tamahome's family, and we were off. We set out and I watched Kibou look over the edge. "Wow, this is pretty cool!" she said looking into the water.  
  
Tasuki snuck up behind her and pushed her to the side. "Don't fall!!"  
  
She screamed slightly and fell to her side. She frowned and kicked Tasuki in the shin. "Don't do that, what if I fell over?"  
  
"Then you would! Ya think I'd save ya?"  
  
Her frown deepened. "I'd pull you down with me!"  
  
She was back to normal, or it seemed, I could only determine her feelings on the outside..I could never see how she really feels, she hides all of it, and does a good job of it. I could never tell her mood, her real mood at least, at the Star Festival she was cheerful for the most part, then when she was off on her own, I find her in a Pub, crying. She's so mysterious that way. Kibou got up and dusted off her skirt. She looked around and looked at me. "It's the first time I've been on a boat, how 'bout you Chichiri?"  
  
"My first time too, na no da." I said coming to where she was. "I happy to see your feeling better today, no da."  
  
She smiled and nodded. "Very much so, thanks!"  
  
She looked to the sky, the sky seemed to get grayer. "That's not normal, something's wrong. I didn't see any clouds coming in that direction before.."  
  
"I..can't seem to use my powers, no da." I said as I saw the clouds thicken. "A seiryu seishi." Kibou assumed.  
  
Soon enough, seems she was right. A seiryu seishi appeared, Kibou said her name under ner breath, Soi. She drew the sword with Seiryu on it. But before we could do anything, we were all frozen in our place and the only one left was Miaka. She drew the sword that Hotohori left with her. There was a large lightning blast that Soi called forth, it hit Miaka directly, but in the end, she was able to hold it off, and all the power was sent into the sword. Miaka held onto that tightly and sent to Soi. Soi then disappeared and we were all free. Everyone was confused by what happened and wasn't sure. "It's a holy sword." I answered. I how it can absorb lightning. Lucky Miaka had that. It seemed the after the battle, a passageway to Hokkan seemed to open up, making our passage there, alot shorter  
  
We went throughout the town near by to find out about the Shinzaho, and they gave us a city. It was quite a large city, so we split up into two groups. We all came to a restaurant where we ate. "Hey there cutie!" Some guys yelled to the girls.  
  
"Hey Nuriko, they probably talkin' to you too." Tasuki teased. "Since you look like a girl!"  
  
"You know what, that's it!" He drew the sword from my waist held his braid and then cut it off. We all looked at him in shock. He just cut his hair.. "It's a bother anyway. I can't protect Miaka with all that hair flying all over the place."  
  
Our tab came and Kibou was the first to grab it, she got out the money and went to pay. "How much is it?" Tamahome asked.  
  
"None of your concern, because your not paying." she said going to the counter. I watched her pay the man and then come back, she went past a table with many perverted men, one of whom slap her on the behind. She frowned, turned around and kicked him in the face. He went flying out of his chair and Kibou came and sat down. "Stupid, perverted Jack asses." she muttered.  
  
Miaka smiled. "Your still the same Ohne-chan."  
  
"Well, we'll need to split up." said Kibou as people came to clean up our table. "This is a pretty big city, so..ok."  
  
She had a small bag of stuff that she brought with her. She brought out two flares. "Ok, light one of these things off once you find out something of the shinzaho. So light them off if you find something, we'll come find you, or the other way around... Ok, we should hurry, we don't have much time. How should we split the group? We have seven people so.. Wait, we'll discuss this outside."  
  
We came outside the restaurant and Kibou handed Miaka a flare. "You, Nuriko, and Tamahome look over this this side of town, and I'll go with the rest and try to find what's going on in the rest of the town." And we were off.   
  
(Kibou's PoV)  
  
We walked around our side of town for a bit, not having any kind of luck at all. Tasuki was riding the horse since he started to complain and I was starting to get tired. This was tiring, walking around a foreign town for hours! I started to shiver as I saw that it was starting to get darker.  
  
"Look at you." said Tasuki. "Your shivering! Your freakin crazy, going around in just THAT! I knew you'd want a coat sooner or later."  
  
I frowned. "Shut up! The coats they wear here are too thick! I can't seem to do anything with them on! And it'll cover my swords!"  
  
I felt something as a blanket being wrapped around my shoulders. I looked at it, it was Chichiri's kesa. "We don't want you to get sick, no da."  
  
"Yeah, if you get sick and Mitsukake has to heal you, and something important comes up and we need Mitsukake's healing, then, it's going to be your fault because you don't have a coat!" Tasuki said getting off the horse.  
  
"Thanks Chichiri." I whispered under my breath.  
  
"We should find a place to rest tonight." said Mitsukake looking around for some kind of inn. We walked around the place for about thirty minutes and finally found an inn. We got two separate rooms. So we ate and tried to decide on who goes to what room.  
  
"I feel so alone..I'm the only girl.." I said slumping my shoulders. "Ok..Um, I am defiantly NOT sharing a room with Tasuki." I said in a rude yet teasing way.  
  
"Ah, who needs you?!" Tasuki yelled. "Ok, then share a room with Mitsukake."  
  
"Why Mitsukake?" I asked, since I was so use to always being stuck with Chichiri...since I knew him really well and all..  
  
"Why not?" Tasuki asked.  
  
I shook my head. "Nothing, I'm just asking a simple question, ok, we'll need to get some rest."  
  
"I'm gonna stay down at the bar for a while." said Tasuki as we all got up.  
  
I smirked. "Don't drink too much, you might lose the last few remaining brain cells that you have."  
  
"Shut up!" he yelled as we went to our rooms. I opened the door and Mitsukake followed behind me. I let a few candles and walked to the window. It started to snow, the white snowflakes were bluish because of the night's lighting. Being in Konan for so long, I've never seen snow fall this much before. It looked really peaceful, and there wasn't too much lighting. I remember 6 years ago, this looked strange, but I wasn't sure why. Now I can't really imagine a world different. I walked back to my bed and something dropped. I looked down, Chichiri's kesa, I forgot that I still had that on. Chichiri..was so nice to let me use it.. I always seem to be happy if he does something small for me like that..  
  
"You should get to sleep Kibou, who knows what might be going on tommorow." said Mitsukake who was already in bed.  
  
I took my swords off and took my flute out and set it down on the table where the candle was burning. I sat layed down on my bed. "..Mitsukake, how did Miaka find you?"  
  
I stared at the ceiling, he was silent for a bit but answered soon. "After you left, I still stayed the same, then, they said something about Shouka coming back to life."  
  
"Shouka..Your fiance` that died of that plague?" I asked, just to be certain.  
  
"Yes...That's when I decided to help. They came to me because Miaka had been too close to Shouka and gave her the plague. Shouka had the plague demon in her, so she made everyone sick...In the end, I had..to.."  
  
He didn't finish, I already knew why. "At least she's resting in peace now. It's a shame, such a sad end for her..."  
  
I felt a slight jump on my bed and I looked down and saw Tama cuddling up next to me. "Are you feeling better from what happened?"  
  
"Yeah..I've been feeling better, though it's like I lost my family, since I never had one, that I've seen since I came to this world when I was 18." I closed my eyes. "Quite a bit of my memories have actually returned to me."  
  
"So you had a bit of amnesia then, it's too bad." He said.  
  
I saw the candle go out when Mitsukake blew out. "Ok, go to sleep."  
  
I closed my eyes and turned to my side. Mitsukake keeps up a coversation alot better than Mitsukake. I can't believe that I never really noticed, maybe I should try to talk to the seishi more often. Other than the ones I have, like Tamahome and Nuriko, but I always stayed around Chichiri. I'm not sure why.. I just felt better around him, of course I couldn't deny myself, but I know that I'm starting to fall in love with Chichiri. I just want to be around him...Probably why I wanted to be sharing a room with Chichiri. Though I don't regret sharing a room with Mistukake, I need to get to know the seishi more...but the people I know too well...They all seem to... die.. I shouldn't think I'm jinxed like that, Chiriko said it himself, that it wasn't my fault.  
  
~*~*~*~*~  
  
Ok, there, done! please reveiw!  
  
~*CosmicMoon 


	15. Chapter 15: The Shinzaho of Hokkan

I had to think through what I wanted to do in this chapter... And We got Kibou's perceptive on the inn thing, I'm just giving Chichiri's. Since the farther they are from each other, the closer they want to be. ^^  
  
~*~*~*~*~  
  
Chapter 15: The Shinzaho of Hokkan  
  
~*~*~*~*~  
  
(Chichiri's PoV)  
  
I don't know why, but I felt jealous, jealous since when we got to the inn, I was certain that I would be able to share a room with Kibou. I was always able to in the past, but that was only because it was just the two of us. This jealousy though... I know that I've never felt like this, not since... Tasuki was fast asleep and it was pretty late morning. Who knows how long he stayed up drinking. I went downstairs to the restraunt area of the inn. Kibou was in there eating breakfast with Mitsukake, she looked really happy and talking alot.  
  
Of course, me, for the last 3 years, I've neglected talking to her too much... I was afraid of something that I think is happening already. I was feeling afraid for some reason, the one thing I swore I would never do, as a monk and for anything, is to never fall in love again. I might've been too naive, I am a monk, but I don't know how long I could deny myself. I wasn't sure, I was confused. Kibou saw me and smiled, she looked back to Mitsukake and excused herself for a moment and came over to me.   
  
"Good morning, did you have a nice sleep?" she said as brightly as ever.  
  
I nodded. "Yeah, no da. Did you?"  
  
"Uh huh! Is Tasuki awake yet?"  
  
Is shook my head. "He's fast asleep."  
  
"That fool, he's going to keep us waiting! Go on and sit down, I'm going to go wake Tasuki." she said running past me and upstairs to the room that I stayed at. I looked back at her for a bit and then walked to where Mitsukake was and sat down.   
  
"Good morning, Mitsukake, no da."  
  
"Good morning." he replied. "We should be heading pretty soon, the others most likey found something about the Shinzaho. We'll get you guys some breakfast and then we'll be heading out."  
  
"..I'm not that hungry, no da." I said, I really wasn't, I some reason lost my appetite. There was a scream from upstairs, it wasn't Kibou's. Everyone was silent and looked to the upstairs, Tasuki came downstairs drenched in water and Kibou came down laughing. Tasuki sat down and Kibou got him a towel to dry off. "Damn bitch." Tasuki muttered looking at the menu. She looked at him and smirked. "This is what you get if you don't get up when I tell you to. Besides, what are you doing sleeping in, we're on an important mission, you shouldn't slack off!"  
  
"Ah who needs you!" Tasuki yelled. A waiter came over and took Tasuki's order, the waiter looked to me to get my order. I waved my hand to indicate that I wasn't having anything and the waiter left.  
  
"Why aren't you eating?" asked Kibou.  
  
"I'm just not that hungry right now, no da." I replied.  
  
She slightly frowned in disaproval of my answer. "You've never done this before, are you feeling ok?"  
  
I nodded. "Yeah, I'm just not hungry, no da."  
  
She put her plate of food that was half gone infront of me. "I'm full this is too much for me, can you at least eat that?"  
  
I knew she wasn't full, she doesn't get full off half of this, she gets full off all of this. But I guess she was just worried about me, so I ate it. Tasuki's came out pretty soon and after he finished, we paid what we had to and left to find the other group. Kibou still wore my Kesa, since she said she felt cold without it at this point. So I let her use it, I didn't really mind. We walked around trying to find them, but it was hard, it was a huge city. "Lets head towards the mountains!" Kibou suggested.  
  
"Why the mountains." Tasuki asked.  
  
"..because, the shinzaho, it's going to be hidden right? So we should head towards the mountains, the mountains are a pretty good place to hide things." She said walking to the east side of town.  
  
She walked at a very fast pace, she was far ahead of anyone else. "Kibou!" Tasuki called out. "Slow down!"  
  
She looked behind her. "Come on! We have to get going!"  
  
We ran to catch up with her. "Is something wrong, Kibou, no da?"  
  
She nodded. "Something is actually...I forgot to say anything, but yesterday, I heard a boom, it was the sound of the flares. Knowing Tamahome or Miaka, maybe even Nuriko, they lit it off wrong, come on!"  
  
She started to run now, she was at the base of the mountains and she kept running. She ran up hill and across the thick snow, but she kept running. She stoped at a certain point and froze. I ran to her and saw the battle going on with a a wolfman, who had the energy of a Seiryu seishi, and Nuriko. There was a leap in the air as Nuriko pounced off the seishi and there was the seishi was about to stab Nuriko in the back with his claws.  
  
Kibou immediatly raised her flute up to her lips and started to play something that made the seishi draw back his claws and cover his ears. Nuriko then had a chance, he jumped behind the wolfman's neck and broke it. Kibou stopped playing.  
  
(Kibou's PoV)  
  
The wolfman went rolling down the mountain and Nuriko looked at us and smiled. I ran to Nuriko, I did it! I finally did it! I saved a life! He didn't die! Nuriko didn't die! I hugged Nuriko around the waist. "Thank god, oh thank god your not dead!"  
  
"I'm glad that you played your flute when you did, who knows what would've happened if you didn't."  
  
Nuriko looked to his left, I looked over and saw a gigantic rock blocking a door. Nuriko picked me up, "Hold on. I need to get this thing out of the way."  
  
"I'll help, I haven't done it much, but I learned how, levitation, I could kinda help."  
  
I held my hands out and tried to remember what, actually she was teaching Chichiri, but when Taiitsukun was teaching this, I followed, and I was able to do it. I closed my eyes and I pictured the rock in my mind, I sent my life force to it and I slowly saw it lift, a red glow surrounded it and then it disapeared. I opened my eyes and Nuriko had moved the rock. I fell to my knees. "Kibou! Are you ok?" asked Nuriko coming to my side.  
  
I nodded. "Yeah. That just took alot out, I haven't lifted anything that heavy before." I said as Nuriko helped me up. My knees felt weak and I fell back down, but Nuriko caught me. He then kneeled down to me. "Come on, get on my back."  
  
I slowly got on his back and I rested my head on his back. We opened the doors and went into the tunnel. Which was dark and scary looking. I closed my eyes so nothing would pop up out of nowhere.  
  
"Tasuki, could you light up the place?" asked Miaka.  
  
Tasuki did so and I saw light while my eyes were closed and then I heard Miaka scream, I opened my eyes and looked to what Miaka screamed at. There were skeletons all over the place. I looked at them, dang, wonder what happened to them.   
  
Arrows started to fly at us, but none of us were hit, two people appeared before us, I didn't feel a regular vibe from them, not human. Miaka tried to convince them to have the shinzaho, but that didn't work out too well. They attacked Miaka with an ice snake, that Tasuki melted immediatly. "Chichiri, hold on to Kibou." Nuriko said letting me down into Chichiri's arms. Nuriko, Tamahome, and Tasuki attempted to fight them, but they went through them. They were ghosts, before they could hurt anyone else, Miaka ran to them and bowed and pleaded to them to let them have the shinzaho, and that she would do anything.  
  
"Take off your clothes." one of them said.  
  
All of us were shocked...we didn't expect that. "You perverts!" Tasuki yelled.  
  
"It's part of the test!" the one with long hair yelled back.  
  
Miaka did so, but she had something under so it came to that. They started to freeze her, I watched her fearing for her life. I rolled out of Chichiri's arms and ran to get to Miaka. I ran into a wall of thick ice and force backwards. But I was caught, I looked up and saw Chichiri, he caught me.. I slamed on the ice. "Miaka! God dammit! You bastards! Your going to kill my little sister!!"  
  
"If she truley is the preistess of Suzaku, then she can find her way out of this." the one with short hair said.  
  
"I..it's so cold.." she whimpered.  
  
"Miaka! You bastards! She could die!!" I yelled.  
  
"Why we're testing her."  
  
I saw a slight spark of red light. I looked to where it was coming from and saw that Nuriko no longer had his bracelets. I looked over to Miaka, she was now wearing them. She soon became completely frozen and nothing happened.  
  
"So she was a normal girl after all." the short haired one said.  
  
I slammed on the ice again. "If you've figured it out, let her g-"  
  
A red light went off and surrounded the whole room. I saw the the light coming from Miaka's wrists. She broke through the ice. Chichiri leaned down to. "Come on, Kibou, get on my back, no da."  
  
I nodded and did so, we came to Miaka and saw she was perfectly fine. Miaka then realized that she was weaing Nuriko's breaclets. "How did I get these?" Miaka asked looking to Nuriko.  
  
"I have no idea." Nuriko answered.  
  
"Maybe," I started. "Maybe it's because we are Miaka's protectors, and when Taiitsukun gave us these items, they were something to help protect her. So since Miaka needed it, Noriko's braclets disapeared and appeared on Miaka."  
  
"Maybe.." said Miaka getting up.  
  
"You have past the test, you truley are the Preistess of Suzaku. We will show you to the shinzaho." They said turning around and going ahead. They opened a door that lead to this beautiful hallway with a red carpet leading up to a pole with a small red pillow and a necklace was set on it. Miaka walked up and picked it up gently. We got it... We have the shizaho.  
  
"But, there is one more step." they said.  
  
Miaka turned around. "What?"  
  
"That's one thing you had to get, there's two shinzahos, there's another in Sairou."  
  
"Dammit." I cursed.  
  
We left the place disapointed, I wasn't really. "Hey guys. We're one step closer to summoning suzaku. One step ahead of Seiryu, so don't be disapointed," I said. "Chichiri, you could put me down, I could walk now."  
  
I felt better, my energy was regained in a short time. I was able to walk perfectly, I looked over to Miaka and she was about to put the shinzaho on, then suddenly it was snatched. We all looked down and saw a wolf..was it that seiryu seishi? It started to run away and Miaka ran after it. I ran after her, but Miaka soon tripped. "Don't worry Miaka, I'll get it back, stay put!"  
  
I chased after the wolf until it came to a camp where I saw Soi and Nakago. I stopped abruptly and back away. I clehced Chichiri's Kesa so I wouldn't lose it with my left hand. "Nakago.." I said coldly. I frowned and drew my sword. "Finally get the chance to see you again.."  
  
Nakago smirked and grabbed the Necklace from the wolf's mouth. "So you followed Ashitare, how nice, what you think you can fight me?"  
  
I stood in a stance. "I've been waiting..Your the reason both Namame and my family died!"  
  
He brought out his whip. "Your family? You must've been around them too long."  
  
He struck the whip at me but I jumped away. "Why did you kill Namame, and my family?!" I struck my sword at him but he blocked, he only smirked and pushed me away by force as the blue symbol appeared on his forehead. I crashed into a tree. I fell to the floor, feeling drained, his power seemed to drain mine.  
  
"Namame, she would tell you too much, so I killed her!" His eyes widened and cut me up. I screamed, Namame..it was my fault you died... I looked up at him, the shinzaho glimmered in his hand. I jumped up to him and swung my sword, but then I was struck by lightning...I couldn't win, not like this, I couldn't win.. I concetrated on getting myself back and teleported away with the little energy I had left. I fell to my knees again infront of the group, but I could see blood dripping and staining the white snow when I leaned down. Everyone crowded around me. "Kibou, are you alright?" asked Nuriko  
  
I nodded. "I'll be fine. I couldn't get the Shinzaho back, Ashitare..he took it to Nakago, and I tried to fight Nakago.."  
  
(Chichiri's PoV)  
  
[author's note: sorry that I keep switching PoVs, it just flows with what I'm doing, hope I'm not confusing you]  
  
Mitsukake quickly healed Kibou, but she said she still felt weak, I again told her to get on my back and she did. She fell asleep, Taiitsukun appeared and told us that she was with Miaka and that she would take care of Miaka until a certain point since she had to do "girl" things, apparently, in Taiitsukun's words. So she told us to go ahead to Sairou, we got some horses from town. I shared a horse with Kibou, and the rest got their own. I set her on first, but she was still asleep, so I had to keep her up. Once I was on, she leaned back against my chest, still fast asleep. I felt her forehead. It was pretty warm, she must've gotten a fever after she was healed. I also noticed she kept holding onto my kesa. Even though she was hurt so much, she kept holding on to it.  
  
"Mitsukake, Kibou has a fever, do you have any medicine, no da?" I asked looking behind me.  
  
He shook his head, "Not with me, but once we get to a town, I'll make some medicine for her."  
  
I heard a horse neigh, I turned around completely and saw Tamahome turn back. "Something doesn't feel right, I'm going to go back for Miaka,"  
  
I heard a gasp from Kibou, and she abruptly awoke. I looked over to her, again, there were tears streaming from her face. "Kibou, are you alright, no da?"  
  
"Ellyn.....is...in a coma..."  
  
Ellyn, she's never mentioned that name before. I remember her mentioning a friend, who was foreign to what we were use to. Ellyn must've been this friend of hers. Tasuki, Mitsukake, and Nuriko rode up to us. "What's wrong, Kibou?" asked Tasuki, this being the first time he's seeing Kibou cry.  
  
"Ellyn's..in..a coma."  
  
"Where is she?" Mitsukake asked, Kibou only looked down. "The one place I can't go...Home.."  
  
She wiped away the tears.. "Well..um sorry 'bout that, we're we heading? Sairou? Where's Tamahome and Miaka?"  
  
"They're in Hokkan, they'll catch up with us soon, no da." I assured her, I saw lights ahead, "look, I think that might be Sairou."  
  
"Wow...How long do you think it's going to take to get there?" asked Kibou.  
  
"Dawn, most likey, no da."  
  
She yawned. "I'm going to sleep, I have a head ache."  
  
She changes moods too quickly, she wakes up crying from a past vision, and then changes the subject. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing...  
  
~*~*~*~  
  
Bah...I'm done....I don't know how this chapter was, but I didn't completely like it, but the next chapter should be better.  
  
~*CosmicMoon 


	16. Chapter 16: Nuriko

With Nuriko alive, it's going to twist the story. With Kibou already it twisted the original story, I usually always like to twist things like this, to do a little " what if " thing, but then it basically resolves the same way. So it's not exactly going to flow along with the story, because different people make different differences. (Who said that? I know someone did... some person...I don't know if I made that up, or got it from somewhere or someone and forgot who said and it came back... I don't know..)  
  
You know what's cool? All the reveiws for this story's long! I love the long reviews; I greatly appreciate all these reveiws you guys give to me! ^^  
  
~*~*~*~*~  
  
Chapter 16: Nuriko  
  
~*~*~*~*~  
  
(Kibou's PoV)  
  
We finally came to the city that was really close by, we figured out that that was Sairou, it was pretty how there, once I got off the horse I gave Chichiri his kesa back. "Thanks for letting me use it."  
  
It was pretty hot in this city, it was the dessert..We found shade, but it only seemed to be a little bit better, but not really, it was still really hot compared to Hokkan. There was a lady who came to us and offered us a place to stay, so we accepted, I was half awake because of the heat, so I agreed too. Once we were inside, I remember one of my world's comforts, air conditioning. And they didn't have it. Air conditioning kept the house cool despite the hot weather.. I don't know how I remembered that..I wish there were something like that here. One thing that the house did have though, was something we would enjoy. The lady showed me to the basement, where there were many scrolls as a small library, but there were many small dark isles. It reminded me...Of some library that I was at one point in my life. I couldn't point out specifically where though. It was most likely in my own world.  
  
I sat down at a desk with the candle that I brought down to the dark room. It was slightly cooler down there. I heard someone come down the stairs, it was Nuriko. He sat in a chair that was near me. "Hey Kibou."  
  
I also noticed this, only for a little bit have I been called my seishi name, only since I met them all before and called myself Kibou. Except Hotohori, who calls me Chiriko; and Miaka, who calls me ohne-chan. But I noticed that, and Chichiri, every time I remember, I call him Chichiri, otherwise I just forget and call him Houjun. All these different names...Well just two, for other people, I just get use to one or the other, sort of..   
  
"What ca' doin' down here?" He asked looking around and the library. I shrugged, "I dunno, right now, it's cooler down here so I came down here, I'll read later. Why'd you come down here?"  
  
"Just a little concerned, that's all." He answered.  
  
"Oh? About what, I'm ok."  
  
"You seem a bit depressed."  
  
I put my hands behind my head and tilted my chair back. "Just a little.." I said thinking back to Konan. About Namame, about my family... Every part of it was partly my fault, if not all.  
  
"How are things with you and Chichiri?"  
  
I fell out of my chair, shocked, and hit my head; I sat back up and rubbed my head. "What do you mean?"  
  
"Aren't you two together? You two ARE always around each other."   
  
"No, only reason we're around each other so much, is because we've known each other for so long, I've known him for 6 years, technically...Besides, Chichiri's a monk." I said tilting back in my chair again.  
  
"So you two knew each other since you were kids?"  
  
I shook my head. "No, just since I was 18."  
  
"18? You're not 18?"  
  
I looked at her strangely, "Yeah, how old did you think I was?"  
  
"..17! I thought you were younger than I was! How old are you?" Nuriko asked shocked.  
  
"24."  
  
Nuriko's jaw dropped. "You can't be 24! You don't look a day over 17!" Nuriko yelled in disbelief.  
  
I smiled. "I guess I do seem a bit young looking for my age. I seem to act like it too, does I? All of you guys, you too, take care of me as if I was younger than you, but the only one older than me is Chichiri."  
  
"Then he's pretty much perfect for you." Nuriko said smiling.  
  
I fell out of my chair again, this time I hit my knee against the table. Nuriko got up and helped me up. "Be careful, you shouldn't lean back like that."  
  
I sat back down. "You shouldn't jump to conclusions like that, Nuriko."  
  
"I'm not! It's obvious, Chichiri's probably too blind to see it, but I know it! You love him!"  
  
I blushed furiously when Nuriko said that. "I..I.."  
  
"Come on, Kibou, your turning all red. Just admit it, I won't tell anyone."  
  
"Promise?"  
  
Nuriko held out his pinky. "Promise."  
  
I held my pinky out...Nuriko.. He reminded me of someone...Ellyn..He reminded me of Ellyn, I vaguely remember her, but somehow, Nuriko, reminded me of Ellyn. I stopped blushing. "..Yeah, I guess your right Nuriko. I do like Chichiri, he means the world to me...But I'm afraid that he'll never like me."  
  
Nuriko smiled. "You two are so close! It doesn't matter that he's a monk! He already cares for you, right?"  
  
I nodded. "Then, if he doesn't love you yet, then he's soon to! He probably does and doesn't even realize it, knowing how thick headed Chichiri can be!"  
  
"Thanks Nuriko." Somehow, even though I haven't experienced it since I got here 6 years ago, this kind of talk made me feel more in place. I was always around guys, and Nuriko was the closest one to a friend that's like a girl. Even though Nuriko's a man, I still can't help but look at him as a girl. He was like a best friend in this world. "Is this what you came to talk to me about?"  
  
He shook his head. "It's just what came up, I just haven't talked to you like this since you were working at Namame's shop, it's pretty refreshing to talk to another girl other than Miaka, and not other guys."  
  
"It is pretty refreshing. Although your a man, you seem so much like a woman..I'm glad you came down here Nuriko, defiantly feel better."  
  
Nuriko got up and headed to the base of the stairs. "Come on, I want you to try this drink."  
  
"What's it called?"  
  
"A Nuriko special. You might be strong enough to handle it."  
  
I followed him upstairs and Nuriko started to make the drink, Nuriko made quite a bit of that drink. I never drank before the festival, I never the wanted to drink before that. A little drink now wouldn't hurt anyone, I don't think. He got the drink ready and made quite a bit and gave it to both Tasuki and I, also for himself. I drank it and I had a small head rush but then when I was finished, I really didn't feel much, just light headed. I felt kind of bad drinking like this; it can damage my brain. But I did feel a sense of ease when I drank. I felt so light headed and not thinking strait... I wasn't thinking at all. It was all thoughts of doing something stupid and thinking that was funny. It made me feel better, not thinking of what's happened to me for so long here, and in my world.  
  
Nuriko made a few more of the same drink and I started to get a horrible headache. I looked at Tasuki, he was going nuts, and everything that was around him he just took and made something of it. I got up; "I'm not feeling very well, I'm going to go lay down."  
  
"Ok!" Nuriko yelled after me.  
  
I then remembered after I closed the door, that I had no room. I looked around for the lady who let us into her house. I found Chichiri on the way. I leaned against the wall so I wouldn't fall down in front of him. Or let him know I was half drunk "Kibou, are you all right, no da?"  
  
I nodded slowly. "I'm just tired, and I need to rest. I just don't know where the bedrooms are."  
  
"Um, we're sharing a room, no da...She showed them to us when we got here..Do you want me to show you to your room, no da?"  
  
"Please.." I said as he turned around. I stayed close to the wall for support. Then I saw we had to cross the living room to get tot he stair case. "God dammit!" I yelled before I realized what I was saying.  
  
Chichiri turned around and looked at me a bit concerned. I was leaned down so I won't completely fall over. He came over to me and gave me him shoulder to lean on. "This isn't really the time or place to get drunk, Kibou."  
  
He knew.. I looked down, I was hard to hide it, and drinking got my train of thinking off, but it wasn't worth it...I don't think. Chichiri noticed.. I didn't want him to; I just wanted to sleep it out. I walked stumbling a bit. "...I'm sorry Houjun." I said once we got to the door.  
  
"For what, no da?" He asked as he opened the door and helped me to my bed.  
  
"I know I shouldn't be drinking.. I'm being immature." I said sitting down.  
  
He took his mask off. "It's all right, no da. I understand why...Just be careful when you drink. Suzaku granted you the power of wisdom, but you shouldn't abuse it like that."  
  
I bowed my head down. "I know...I'm..an idiot..I know. I'm not worth anything.."  
  
Houjun patted my back. "You're not an idiot, no da.....Your the only one who can do beyond what her powers let her, you can even do my powers, you can use a sword as good as Hotohori, you fight as well as Tamahome, and then there's your wisdom, and your worth a lot to the group and because I-"  
  
He cut off right away. I looked up to him, he was blushing and looking down. I put my legs up on the bed and laid down. "...Thanks Houjun.."  
  
"..Um..Not at all, Kibou, no da." He said covering me with the blanket. "Get a good rest, Kibou, no da." He said his voice sounding a bit shaky, as if nervous and he quickly left the room.  
  
I looked to my side and saw his mask and picked it up, still lying down. It had the softness of skin, but it was still hard in it's own way. It almost felt like a toy, I put it down and turned over. Nuriko might be right..  
  
~*~*~*~  
  
[You know, I was thinking about ending it there...But I didn't, it would've been way too short, now we get to see what Chichiri's thinking! Yay!]  
  
(Chichiri's PoV)  
  
I went where no one was, which was the basement, which had the library. I realized I forgot my mask in the room, I couldn't stop blushing. I really needed my mask at that time, behind it; she wouldn't have been able to see my blushing. I felt feverish..I almost said it, after I realized it, I almost said it! I'm such an idiot! I can't imagine what mess that I've gotten myself into... I can't believe myself, I don't want her to stop talking to me... because she's freaked out of someone like me in love with her..   
  
I heard someone come downstairs, it was Nuriko. He smiled when he saw me. "Now your the one down here, I had to come and talk to you about something."  
  
"Um, what was that, no da?"  
  
"First of all, don't you take your mask everywhere?" He asked sitting in a chair across from me. I looked away from him to not show that I was still slightly blushing. "Um, I left it in my room, no da."  
  
Nuriko raised an eyebrow. "Really, why are you blushing Chichiri?"  
  
I started to blush again when I thought about it. "You weren't peakin' on Kibou were you?"  
  
I blushed even harder. "N-No, I wouldn't d-do that, no da!"  
  
Nuriko smirked. "You like Kibou, don't you?"  
  
"W-what do you mean, no da? What would make y-you think that, no da?" I said nervously.  
  
Nuriko crossed his arms, "I see. So you say that after stuttering, and blushing, I can't believe you. Just admit it! You love Kibou!!"  
  
"ok, ok, na no da. I do...But Nuriko, please don't tell her, no da."  
  
He nodded. "Of course, am I the type to say such things? Besides, do I talk to Kibou often?"  
  
"I guess so..."   
  
"Well, I could find out what she thinks of you, and I'll try to point out how to help you, Chichiri."  
  
"...Um, no it's ok Nuriko...Besides..I'm not sure.."  
  
Nuriko looked at me a bit confused. "What do you mean not sure."  
  
"I'm not sure if I like Kibou in that way or not." I said.  
  
Nuriko looked down. "Oh, then..ok..um, where's Kibou now?"  
  
"She's in her room sleeping. She was a bit drunk."  
  
"Oh, that was my fault, I wanted her to try my drink, I guess it was a bit strong for her."  
  
Nuriko got up and headed upstairs. "Um, ok, well, I think dinner's going to be going soon, so get her up if you can."  
  
~*~*~*~*~  
  
I'm glad Nuriko didn't die for this story. ^^ Look at what he could do to munipulate people to say things like that. Heh, please reveiw! I'll try to get the next chapter when I can. ^^ 


	17. Chapter 17: Sairou

You know what's pretty sad? In my old stories, I expected to get a certain amount of reveiws before I actually submitted the next chapter.. That's pretty sad. I'm glad I don't do that now, and the stories, man, they sucked so much crap...who could possibly like those?  
  
Otaku, I'd bet you'd have a great time, looking at all the grammar errors (horrible grammar errors, I might add), spelling errors (it's gotten MUCH better than what it was 2 years ago.) typos, and everything that bugs you in those stories..I should edit those some day..  
  
Opaaru Tsuki I started your story, I'm on chapter 3, I haven't had a chance to finish it yet, and I don't like reviewing until I get to the last chapter updated. So sorry I didn't review, but I really like it so far. I'll review it once I'm done, I want to finish my story, and I usually don't read fanfiction, but I'll come back to yours  
  
Same with you Water Muse (Kouran), I'll read your story when I get a chance.  
  
And everyone, this chapter took a while to write since..I just got stung by a bee (my first time :'( it hurt..) right on my left hand and I accidentally burned my right index finger cooking...by touching the hot part...man I'm dumb, so sorry, I just couldn't type very fast.  
  
Also, Sorry I didn't get this out sooner, Fanfiction.net was being retarded.. But I finally got it out! yay!  
  
~*~*~*~*~  
  
Chapter 17: Sairou  
  
~*~*~*~*~  
  
Dinner was about ready so I went into her room. Once in there, she was fast asleep. My mask was in her hands. I slightly shook Kibou; she threw the mask at me and turned over. I picked up my mask and put it back on. I pulled her blanket off her and she crouched into a ball. "Nema me na be la pa.." She whined.  
  
"Come on Kibou, dinner, no da." I said.  
  
"Dinner, no da?" She asked popping her head up and coping my way of speaking. "Dinner!" She piped childishly and jumping up and stretching. She ran past me and opened the door and ran down the hallway, she waited for me after she got halfway to the dining room. "Come on, Chichiri!"  
  
I caught up to her slowly. "And, thanks." She said and ran to the dining room before I could ask why she was thanking me. Once I got to the dining room, she already sat down next to Nuriko. I sat in an empty seat next to her. Dinner was on the table and we all started to eat.  
  
I ate a little bit, Kibou was done before I was and excused herself from the table to go outside. As soon as I was done, I excused myself from the table and followed Kibou outside. She was sitting against the building, "Something doesn't feel right.." She said while I sat down, "I just ate a bunch..but I don't seem to feel full."  
  
"I'm not really noticing that, but I am noticing that I'm having trouble communicating with Hotohori, no da."  
  
"Yeah..It seems a bit weird. I drank one or two drinks of Nuriko's special, I only felt half drunk. My mind was just telling me that I was suppose to act a certain way. And it did it on it's own, as if were in some kind of illusion right now."  
  
Everything around us suddenly disappeared all of us were in the middle of the dessert. We got up, "Um..We were in an illusion.." Said Kibou looking around the dark dessert.  
  
The rest of the group came over to us. "What the hell happened?!" yelled Tasuki.  
  
We walked over to the rest of the group. "Well, we were in an illusion, apparently." Said Kibou.  
  
"Hey guys! Kibou, Tasuki, Mitsukake, Nuriko, Chichiri!!" Yelled the familiar voice of Tamahome. We all looked over and saw Tamahome riding along with another man, bringing four horses. We all got on a horse each, Kibou shared a horse with me and Tamahome explained that we had to hurry to Miaka before she was killed by the seiryu seven.  
  
~*~*~  
  
We reached where we had to by sun up; Kibou was too worried about Miaka to go to sleep. We got there in time though, Tamahome saved Miaka in time and Suboshi who was attacking her, took his twin brother, Amiboshi and left. The old man there turned out to be Tamahome's master. Once we got to a house an old lady, who seemed to be the wife of the old man gave us something to sleep in and Kibou was the first one out.  
  
I woke up a bit later and found Miaka sitting there, hugging her knees. "You jerk, Tamahome..After that deep kiss too!!" She yelled and punched me in the face accidentally.  
  
"Oh, I'm sorry Chichiri! Are you ok?"  
  
"Yeah, I'm fine no da." I said sitting next to her. "Say um, Chichiri?"  
  
"Yeah, na no da?"  
  
"About my sister...How'd you meet her?" Funny that question came up.. I never even told Kibou how I ended up with her.  
  
"..Well, I was on my way to see my fiance`, a day before she died...I had something to give her, but then I heard someone fall, as if from the sky, I looked behind me and your sister had fallen, right on her head, she was then unconsious. I hurried her to a doctor, they said the head injury could've killed her, but it didn't and said she should wake up soon. She slept for a day.. She had two bags with her, a small one, and a back pack, her small bag stayed and was destroyed in the flood that came the next day, her back pack, it was stolen by a someone..She woke up and she only seemed to remember her name..She went around on her own for 3 years, and then trained with me when I was with Taiitsukun for 3 years."  
  
Miaka nodded slowly. "So that's what happened, I wondered why ohne-chan was always around you.. Do you love her?"  
  
"Why do you ask, no da?" I asked not looking directly at her but infront of me. "Well, you have been around her for 6 years, or known each other..And ohne-chan, she was like a best friend at home. She told me everything, her boyfriend..I can't imagine a bigger jerk! She was so broken up by him! Treating her like crap, hitting her, calling her nasty names..She never told me why she never broke up with him..But, Jason..her boyfriend, she deserved better than him to be the first and she deserves better now..I know your a monk, Chichiri, but I know, that once ohne-chan's memories are back, she'll need you then more than ever..Especially someone who's as nice as you." She said, her voice almost sounding cracked as if crying.  
  
I looked to her; her eyes were starting t water up. "Why's that, no da?"  
  
"After Jason was arrested, I heard from her best friend, Ellyn, that she was becoming a wreck, since her father died too. Jason broke out of jail and started to become a serial killer, anyone who got in his way, Ellyn fell into a coma..Ohne-chan went missing..I guess that's when she came here.."  
  
That was it...All her visions that she told me made sense..but I didn't know Jason became a killer..But she might soon...I should tell her.. I know I should.. I have to sooner or later.. "Ok Miaka, I'll do what I can. Ok, well, anyways Miaka, look into this mirror."  
  
~*~*~*~*~  
  
(Kibou's PoV)  
  
I walked around for a bit and then spotted Subaru, I ran to her. "Hi Subaru." I greeted  
  
"Oh, hi dear, I haven't seen you in a long time, I haven't gotten a chance to talk to you. It's so nice to see you again."  
  
"Yeah...How have you been?" I asked walking with her. "Nothing really, Xi Fang moved in with us a year ago, so she became a daughter to us. Which reminds me, do you want to help make dinner, Toroki said you weren't much of a cook, but you made some interesting exotic foods."  
  
I smiled. "Yeah, I'd be glad to make it for tonight."  
  
She smiled. "Great, Miaka and Xi Fang are making their own dishes too, so go ahead and find some room in there and cook whatever your going to do, we should have everything you'd need."  
  
"Thank you, Subaru." I said as she led me to the kitchen. I haven't cooked for a while, but I guess it'd be ok, some part of me told me that I always loved making this for everyone. I knew everything that it needed..It was obviously food from my world. They were unhealthy, but they weren't very healthy, really fattening and greasy (none other than most American food ^^) I came into the kitchen and they were not really done so I would've got it done in time. "Hi onhe-chan!" Miaka piped.  
  
"Hi." I said "having fun?"  
  
She nodded. "But I wish I could cook as good as you, ohne-chan."  
  
I smiled. "I don't really cook too well anyway."  
  
I got out the potatoes and started to cut them up (French fries ^^), then I found ground beef and mashed it into a circle shape and got a bunch of sliced bread ready, (hamburgers...without anything on it x-P, that'd taste..actually, I wouldn't care too much..) and a few other things just to have something in there. (Like, I dunno, whatever she can make there with the supplies they had..)I helped set the table and then ate with them  
  
"Have you heard the legend of that tower before?" Asked Xi Fang  
  
Both of us looked to it. Neither of us did. "Well, it's said that if two people kiss on top of that tower right when the sun sets, then nothing will ever separate them... But no one's allowed up there...there's been monsters appearing and a lot of couples have been hurt."  
  
..Never separated..I wish Houjun loved me like that..Then I wouldn't be afraid to go up there, if it means never being separated..Of course, it's just a legend, anything can happen when it's twisted around by the hands of fate. (A/N: In other words, twisted around by the hands of MOI!!!)  
  
"Wow, there are a lot of different kinds of foods here!" Said Tasuki coming in with the others. "Some of it's left most is mine, middle's Xi Fangs', and at the end is Ohne-chan's'."  
  
"Holy shit, Kibou cooked! Damn, run for your life!" Said Tasuki.  
  
I frowned. "Go ahead, try it. You've never seen you cook before."  
  
"None of us have, maybe Miaka, no da." Said Chichiri sitting on the end of the table with my food. I sat down next to him. "Come on everyone, get a taste of Miaka's food before you eat mine." I said trying to be nice. I got a bit of her food and I tried it, I swallowed it whole without tasting it.  
  
"You all look like you hate it."  
  
I smiled. "Miaka, it's just a little burnt, you're still learning, and as long as you tried it's o-"  
  
"I can't eat this..This is crap." said Tamahome.   
  
I glared at him. "Tamahome, your a piece of work! Even if the food is awful --ah." Tasuki said cutting off and froze.  
  
"Miaka's still learning Tamahome! I don't know what's up with you, but I'd like to see you do better! I bet you never even cooked before!" I yelled. Miaka looked down. "That's ok Ohne-chan, you're right, I am horrible." And she left the room.  
  
I sighed. Then looked to Tamahome. "Give me all the food Miaka made." He muttered.   
  
While Tamahome started to turn purple, and everyone else ate. They all tried my food too. "This is pretty good, no da." Said Chichiri.  
  
I blushed, slightly, "Thank you."  
  
I could hear Nuriko snickering. I looked up to him and glared at him. He just kept snickering. So I just frowned and went on with eating. When I was done I went around outside and found stairs, huge stairs, I sat at the top, I saw Chichiri talking to Nuriko for a bit then looked up to me, Nuriko patted his back and walked off and Chichiri walked up the stairs to me.  
  
He sat down next to me. "I've never tried your cooking before, no da. It's pretty good, Kibou, no da."  
  
I smiled. "Thank you, I thought I'd mess up. I hadn't made it in so long.. But it turned out ok."  
  
There was a brief awkward silence.. "..What did you talk about with Nuriko?"  
  
"Oh, nothing, no da." He said. "He was just talking to me about Hotohori."  
  
I nodded. At least he didn't tell Chichiri... There was another awkward silence, this one lasted. I wasn't sure what to say, I felt more embarrassed around him since I told someone. I waited for him to say something. He wasn't saying anything though, as if he was stuck in the same position that I was stuck in...Which I doubt... Though Nuriko said... Well.. Nuriko assumes alot..Like when he said the priestess of Suzaku was a brat, he gets along with her just fine now.. I don't know if Nuriko was right or not. I looked up to the sky blankly, the sun was almost setting.  
  
"Kibou.."  
  
I looked back to Chichiri instantly when I heard his normal voice. His mask was still on, and it didn't seem he wanted to take it off. "I've been meaning to tell you this for a long time."  
  
He held my hand with his left and took off his mask. I blushed furiously, thinking that I knew what he was going to say. "I-"  
  
"KIBOU! CHICHIRI!!! MIAKA WENT TO THAT TOWER!! WE HAVE TO HURRY BEFORE SHE GETS HURT!!!" Yelled Tasuki's voice from the bottom of the stairs.   
  
I gasped and jumped to my feet. "That idiot!" I yelled and ran down the stairs and followed the others to get to the tower that Tamahome already left for.   
  
~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
:) I like where I ended :) Please review! I'll try to get the next chapter out soon ^^  
  
~*CosmicMoon 


	18. Chapter 18: The Prediction

I've been planning this chapter out for a long time.. It's finally out...  
  
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Chapter 18: The Prediction  
  
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(Chichiri's PoV)  
  
Damn it, damn it, damn it, DAMN IT!! Why? Why did that have to happen? Just when I was going to tell her, why? She ran ahead, worried about her little sister. Nuriko came up to me. "Did you do it? Did you tell her?" He asked.  
  
I shook my head. Nuriko frowned. "Why not, you had five minutes!"  
  
"It was awkward, no da. Even Kibou wasn't talking, no da."  
  
Nuriko's frown only deepened. "Listen to me, you have to tell her! If you don't it could be too late!"  
  
"I was about to, I was..But then Tasuki called us and said Miaka was in trouble, besides, the Priestess comes before anything, no da."  
  
Nuriko slapped the back of my head. "Idiot, stop trying to make excuses! You know you love her, so tell her!!"  
  
"Hey, quit your yelling back there! Its getting annoying Nuriko!" Yelled Tasuki from infront of us. I tried to find Kibou, but she was way too far ahead. I couldn't tell her now, she was too worried about Miaka right now, it wouldn't be right.. I could try to tell her once we're in the tower. But then everyone's around, it'd be really awkward then. We came into the tower where a monster was about to attack Tamahome, but Tasuki took care of that immediately. But Miaka wasn't with them; Subaru and Tokaki soon came running to us, telling us Tatara was kidnapped. Tatara had the other Shinzaho so we had to find him, and we came to a tower, since I tried to sense Miaka's life force. We all went inside, even the Seiryu seven were in there, Tatara was in there so we had to help.  
  
Tamahome ran off on his own and Tasuki, Nuriko, and Mitsukake went ahead, which left Kibou and I alone. "Hey Chichiri, what if I go back to my own world?... I'm not sure when I am, if it's once I fulfill my duties of protecting the priestess or..You know, I'm just not sure. I don't know what I'd do.. I still haven't regained all my memories. It'd be pretty awkward if I went back."  
  
..That's right, Kibou isn't really from this world...but if she loves me and I love her..It's between seishi and not priestess and seishi.. Would Kibou have to go back to her own world? After Miaka summons Suzaku, would Kibou have to go back with her? I couldn't tell her now.. Then she'd feel bad leaving.. But if I didn't, I never see her again, and I'd regret that I didn't tell her. "Kibou, I've wanted to tell you this, but I don't know what you think..But I-"  
  
"AHHHH!!!!!" A scream interrupted me. Kibou gasped. "Miaka!" She ran to where Miaka's cry came from. I frowned..again...Every time isn't it? I caught up with the rest of the seishi when we came to a certain room with someone that had the different energy..That must've been Tatara, he was being held up by a monster with a sharp point at him, a boy, floating up was controlling the monster. Yui was close behind him, with a mirror in her hand. "Don't come any closer, or I'll kill him."  
  
"Lady Yui, go on, don't worry yourself over these people,"  
  
Someone then came through the wall, Nakago. I heard Kibou growl lowly as she slowly drew her sword. I grabbed the hand drawing the sword. She looked at me, her eyes pleading me to let go, and that she needed to do this. "No." I whispered sternly.  
  
She looked over and watched Nakago leave with Yui. She took her hand away from my grasp and looked down. "It's not fair.."  
  
There was a sudden commotion, I quickly looked up and saw Tatara using his power and wrapped the veins that he brought out from the seed and wrapped it around seiryu seishi who was instantly dragged into where Tatara was and the claw like thing came down and stabbed the seishi right in the heart. Both of the fell to the ground, barely alive or dead. "Tatara!" Yelled Subaru from behind us and came to their fellow seishi.  
  
Tatara looked to Tamahome. "Your Tamahome, aren't you? Even though we knew we would be leaving each other, the preistess of Byakko and I..loved each other.. Even if she married another man, and had children..I was happy because the woman I loved was happy.."  
  
"Tatara.." Said Tokaki holding him up; I felt no life force from him when he closed his eyes. "Tatara!!" Yelled Subaru.  
  
For 90 years, he went through this.. Poor Tatara..but once Kibou leaves want am I going to do? I heard a sudden scream next to me, it Kibou. I immediately looked over and saw Kibou pushed back and bent low.  
  
"Kibou!" All of us yelled.  
  
"I'm not Kibou.." A lower voice than Kibou said, she looked up, the eyes that were upon her face, weren't hers. They were filled with evil, and not anything close to Kibou, she seemed like a different person yet not. "I am Miboshi of the Seiryu Seishi."  
  
No! Not Kibou! "This body is so torn apart by emotions around what she's experienced, no wonder it was so poorly defended on the inside.. I, Miboshi shall take it as my own.."  
  
Kibou was now floating up as the mother Miboshi was and brought the thing that Miboshi held in his hand up to hers. "My old body's dead.. And I can enter whatever body I see fit, such a weak willed child."  
  
I didn't see her character mark anymore, it disappeared.. She might be gone! "Until Lady Yui summons seiryu, you can play with my beasts!"  
  
Snakes appeared around her and attacked us; I had no choice but to put up a barrier. "We have to be careful when we fight, we could kill Kibou."  
  
Miaka accidentally slipped out and was immediately electrified. There was nothing behind Kibou's eyes, I couldn't find her...I can't believe I was too late!! "I could kill your preistess now..but then I'd feel sorry for you; I had something special planned for all of you."  
  
"Bastard, Give Kibou back to us!" Tamahome yelled.  
  
"Your Tamahome? You're as gallant as Nakago said.. But your will power is much stronger than this weak girl."  
  
I felt my blood pressure rise as he said those words. Kibou.. She isn't weak.. She's really strong..she can't be beaten like this! 'Miboshi's' eyes suddenly widened and changed back into Kibous'. But then she looked down. "Silence!" Miboshi yelled and electrocuted Miaka again. She grabbed her head in pain. "My head.."  
  
She's trying to break through. Someone cut up the snakes and caught Miaka. A man, with purple hair that had the style of Tokaki's appeared. "Where did you come from?"  
  
"I've been here, but what you just saw was something called Teleportation, a specialty of the Byakko seishi, Tokaki."  
  
"Master?!" Exclaimed Tamahome.  
  
Mitsukake was about to heal her but then Subaru was able to heal her, and she had her voice back. "I won't you get to her! I'll kill you all!!"  
  
A black cloud surrounded Kibou. "He's summoning a the highest level beast he has, no da!!" I yelled.   
  
She suddenly disappeared and then came up was a giant. "Ohne-chan! Please ohne-chan!! Snap out of it!!"  
  
"Kibou, you god damn idiot! Snap out of it!!" Yelled Tasuki.  
  
We all ran for it when the floor started to crumble. "Kibou, please Kibou!! You can pull through!!" I yelled.  
  
The eyes suddenly changed and she looked at me. "Houjun..." but she couldn't do anything, Miboshi immediately came back. The monster started to punch and break apart every part of the tower that it could. Miaka suddenly tripped. The monster stopped and was about to punch Miaka but then it stopped. We all looked up to the orb that Kibou was in. The thing that Miboshi held, was stabbed into Kibou's arm. Her eyes had returned, tears filled her eyes in pain. "I..I won't let you hurt her!! I won't let you hurt my little sister!"  
  
She looked over to us.. "Tasuki.. You have to..use your fire on me!"  
  
"What the hell sayin?!" Yelled Tasuki shocked. "I can't do that!!"  
  
"Tasuki, you damn fool!! USE YOUR FIRE ON ME!!!!"  
  
She suddenly changed back. "You can't resist me!"   
  
"OHNE-CHAN, PLEASE STOP!!"  
  
The monster started to walking again but Kibou stabbed herself in the thigh and the monster fell. "I won't lose to you.. I won't!! I won't let you take over," she looked over to us. "Miaka..I'm sorry.." then she looked to me.. "Houjun.."  
  
He was starting to come back. Kibou screamed and then drew the sword of seiryu. She stabbed herself right near the heart..  
  
No...She can't..she couldn't.. "Your going to die with me.. I won't let you hurt them!!"  
  
The monster started to crumble and Kibou arose from the monster. I came to where she would land and held her in my arms, my mask was off, so she could see my face.. She looked to me and smiled. "Houjun..I did it.. I saved all of you.."  
  
I fell to my knees, everyone came to me, around Kibou. "Ohne-chan, ohne-chan please hold on!"  
  
"I can't, if you heal me, then you heal the thing inside me.."  
  
"..No...Kibou..you can't.." I said as tears started to fill my eyes.  
  
"Houjun..I'm sorry.." She said as I felt her getting colder.  
  
"I couldn't protect you...after I promised that I would protect you.." she can't die..not like this..not like this..  
  
"Miaka, go ahead, hurry, you have to stop Yui.." she said looking to her little sister who was already crying. "Ohne-chan, I can't leave you."  
  
"She's right." Said Subaru. "Your sisters sacrifice, you can't take that for granted."  
  
Miaka slowly got up with Tamahome, but before Tamahome could leave, Kibou held his hand. "Tamahome.. Promise me; promise me you'll keep my little sister safe."  
  
That made Tamahome crack as well, tears streamed down his face. "..I will.." He said, his voice cracked.  
  
"If you don't, I'll come haunt you in the future..If I survive this by some miracle, I'll be watching you.."  
  
She then looked to me. "Houjun, you need to protect them.. You need to protect Miaka, Nakago..You're the only one who can cast a barrier strong enough for my little sister..and little brother.."  
  
"..I can't leave you.. I just can't.." I said as the tears streamed down my face, her breathing pace quickened as her blood kept flowing. She struggled in my arms, the pain was unbearable, it was almost as if I could feel it. "..Kouran.."  
  
My heart skipped a beat when I heard her name. "..I'm sorry, Houjun...I promised Kouran..I promised her I'd never leave you...She was sorry though..she really was..She loved you so much.. Just like..I..I do.."  
  
"..Kibou...I waited too long and I know it..and I regret it..Nuriko was right...I should've said it sooner..while I had the chance...I love you Kibou.. I love you.."  
  
I leaned down and my lips met her now cold yet in a very small way gentle, soft lips. She was weak, and now barely alive..but she returned it. Her lips fell weak and her hand that I held in my hand went limp. I felt a sudden drop in her lifeforce, and I pulled away, her head turned since it was limp and now she felt cold.. as if she were dead..but the blood still flowed out of her body. Mitsukake leaned down next to me. "I'm sorry Chichiri...here, I'll heal her wounds now.."  
  
I gently let her down and slowly pulled the blade out of her, it kept tearing me to pieces and it came out inch by inch. My arm went limp after I pulled it out.. He put a hand over her and the red symbol appeared on him as a green glow surrounded Kibou, all her wounds disappeared. She started laughing, not a cheerful one..but an evil one. "You fools...she was still alive.."  
  
She jumped away. "Your a bunch of fools...Now..you'll die.."  
  
She rose her hand, I couldn't move..I was in shock..at the sudden dying then living phase that Kibou's body suddenly when through. Nuriko suddenly came behind her and held by the arms with his. "Leave Kibou alone..Take me! Take me instead! I'm willing to give up my body.. Just leave Kibou alone!" Nuriko yelled.  
  
"Noriko, stop it!" I yelled. He flew back and Kibou was about to fall but I quickly caught her, she was unconscious. Nuriko looked up, it was still him. "Tell Kibou, that I'm sorry, just always stay together, the both of you!"  
  
"Nuriko!!" Tasuki yelled. Nuriko took one last glance and every one of us and jumped down out of the tower, leaping to his own death. "NO!!! NURIKO!!"  
  
I saw a slight red glow below me but I didn't look since a horrible cold chill went down my spine and it told me Nuriko died immediately... Then I remembered something.. There was something in my shirt that I kept in there, forgetting to give it to Kibou...Namame's note.. 'When they come together and it's all gone, the taste of death will be very near, but will be saved by the heart of care'... When the shinzahos comes together, and it all seems lost...'the taste of death will be very near'.. Kibou.. almost dying.. 'but will be saved by the heart of care'... Nuriko..  
  
The building started to shake more violently, I led everyone to the top, still carrying Kibou. Subaru and Tokaki met us on the way and followed us up. Tamahome and Miaka looked at us. "Where's Nuriko?"  
  
I looked down.. "He sacrificed himself..for Kibou.."  
  
I took off my kesa and set it down, still holding Kibou tightly. I felt horrible that I couldn't save Nuriko, but he chose to die... Nuriko sacrificed his life for Kibou and I...Because he knew we loved each other... And was willing to die to save our love..  
  
Thank you Nuriko...  
  
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...ok... That turned out nothing like I expected it...but that's what happened...ok.. um.. I'll get the next chapter out when I can, please review  
  
~*CosmicMoon 


	19. Chapter 19: Always be With you

Sorry I took so long to get this chapter out.. I couldn't think of what to write.. My writings been going slow.. But you know, I'm about done..I think I am.. with the story..It's already the longest story that I've ever written so...  
  
And heres the redo..oi, this took a bit.. I think the only one who was able to read, as far as I know, was Otaku and so.. everything's different from.. well, I took out the part where they were fighting and added what happened at night, that I forgot to write, another reason to redo the chapter...  
  
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Chapter 19: Always be with you  
  
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(Kibou's PoV)  
  
"Kibou." echoed the voice of Nuriko.  
  
I looked around and I saw Nuriko, his body emitted a white glow, and his image was a bit blured, as if he was a ghost. Was I dead? I should be by now.. But then, why am I seeing Nuriko? I walked over to the Nuriko that I saw and he smiled when he saw me. "It's ok now, Kibou, your safe now, your in the arms of the one you love."  
  
"The one I love?" I questioned since I thought I was dead.  
  
"Don't be silly, Kibou. Your sleeping in your bed in the Konan palace with Chichiri sleeping right next to you." He said warmly.  
  
I looked at him still confused. "So I'm not dead?"  
  
He shook his head. "Of course not. You wouldn't want to be dead, when you love Chichiri so much. You can't die."  
  
Even more confused than before, I continued to question him. "...How?"  
  
He rolled up his sleeves and took his bracelets off and gave them to me. "Keep these, Kibou, they soon might be useless, but when the time comes, it won't need the power of Suzaku, because it was a gift from Taiitsukun."  
  
"Nuriko.."  
  
"Your like my little sister, Kibou.. That's how I've always looked at you and that's how I cared for you.. I know your older, but I never thought of it that way, you were the little sister that I never had.."  
  
"..Did you die, Nuriko?" I asked almost understanding why he was saying all this..  
  
He only smiled. "You'll live happily with Chichiri, and that's all that matters...And Kibou, promise me this."  
  
"What?" I asked still extremely confused.  
  
"Promise not to cry over me..Can you do that?"   
  
I nodded. "I promise...Though did you tell Chichiri?" I asked out of curiousity.  
  
He shook his head. "Nope, I kept true to the very end, because besides of what I thought of you, we were friends..and that's what friends are for."  
  
"I'll miss you so much Nuriko..You were the closest thing to my best friend in this world..."  
  
"Don't worry, I'll always be near by, no matter what. Physical form, or spirit, I'll look after you, I'll be your guardian angel.."  
  
"Thank you, Nuriko." I said as tears filled my eyes.  
  
He wiped them away and it felt as if he was wiping them away. As if he was right there... But I had to face reality and know he wasn't. "Don't cry, I hate to see you cry. Your such a sweet girl, go on, do your best and don't cry..But if you really need to let it out..do so, I'll be near..and so will Chichiri, who's loved you all this time."  
  
I hugged Nuriko tightly and I could feel him..But it wasn't him, yet my eyes told me it was...Nuriko was holding me as I hugged him...He was there... "I'll miss you..."  
  
"And my gift to you, Kibou..I have one last thing.."  
  
"What? You can't possibly give me anymore! You've done so much!" I cried.  
  
He smiled. A red glow surrounded him and then it enveloped me, I felt as if something came through my mind, something that was missing inside me.. my memories... "You know who you are now, Kibou... But don't worry, Chichiri will be there for you.."  
  
He completely faded away and blackness surrounded me. I felt that I was living..I felt a bed beneath me..but arms were around me, it felt almost familiar..Jason? I opened my eyes and saw the familiar white clothing of Houjuns' and I looked up..It was Houjun... He was sleeping peacefully, I shook him slightly and he opened his eye. He smiled when he saw me awake. "Good morning, Kibou."  
  
"...I'm still..alive...? I'm really still living?"  
  
He nodded. "Of course..Nuriko, he saved you, he took in Miboshi and..he died..."  
  
"...So..Nuriko did die.." I whispered. "Because of me... he died..He's gone because of me.."  
  
"..No.. he did it for both of us, because, he wanted us to be happy."  
  
I sat up and looked around. "So we are back in Konan.." I lifted my wrists and two bracelets dangled there. I touched them almost thinking that they weren't real, but they were..Nuriko's bracelets. "That was more than a dream.."  
  
"I guess that was what the red light was..." Chichiri muttered  
  
I traced my thoughts back into my past.. I knew who I was.. Everything, I knew who I was.. I was the second born in a family of 3, the only born in America, they named me Kibou..meaning Hope.. I moved to America when I was thirteen and went to Nationals in flute competition within a year, and then went back to Japan, went through Jonan with a 4.0 and then came back to America, where I was looking for somewhere to apply for college..before.. everything happened..  
  
"Kibou? Are you ok, no da?"  
  
I nodded. "..Yeah.. I jus-" I remembered.. "Jason had tried to kill me for sending him to that hell hole called jail..."  
  
I looked up to Chichiri, he seemed shocked. "You remember?"  
  
"Yeah.. Nuriko..he gave me my memories.... I remember everything.."  
  
Chichiri embraced me gently. I layed my head down on his chest.. It was so comfortable, I never noticed how much I loved this.. Since I was always too depressed to think about it.. But he did this so much, and it made me feel secure. "..I'll always be here for you..I won't forget what Nuriko gave his life for.. just remember that, Kibou.."  
  
I nodded slowly. I got up and out of bed, I looked around and found my strap with the sword of Suzaku on it. "Where's the sword that has Seiryu on it?" I asked looking around again.  
  
"It was left back at that tower, no da." He said getting up as well.  
  
I strapped the sword around me. "I see.. I'm sorry I caused you so much trouble."  
  
"No, you weren't any trouble at all, no da." he said as he put his mask on.  
  
I suddenly felt something leave me. I looked up to Chichiri, he seemed to have felt something too. "..What happened?"  
  
"I..I felt as if.. my power left.."  
  
"Try transforming,"  
  
He seemed he was trying, but nothing seemed to happen. "..Shit..let me try." A yellow cloud of smoke surrounded me as I turned into Chichiri. "Yep, it still works for me." I said brightly.  
  
Chichiri frowned. "Well, that's because that's not the power that Suzaku granted you, no da."  
  
I smiled. "I know! Mine was wisdom right?"  
  
He nodded. "Yeah,"  
  
"I don't feel any dumber...Ask me a question."  
  
"What's the capital of Konan?" he asked, trying to start with a simple question.  
  
"..Um...Eiyo." I answered after thinking a bit about it.  
  
"Ok..What river is on the border of Konan and Kutou?"  
  
I knew I knew that...That was a really simple question.. Why didn't I know?! "..Um...I don't know..I..forgot.."  
  
"That's strange, no da.. Your knowledge IQ's come back down to what it was before Suzaku granted you wisdom, not many people know that since they don't care, but it seems you don't exactly know.. Come on we ha-"  
  
"AH!!" yelled Tasuki interrupting me and bursting through the door. He held his fan and his shirt was off. "It won't work! It won't work!! Chichiri, what did you do?!" He yelled.  
  
"Nothing, we seemed to have lost our powers, I'm not as smart as I usually am." I said trying to calm the red head down.  
  
"So now your a complete dumb ass?"   
  
I punched him in the face and went to where Miaka was. We came in, it seems it was true, Hotohori confirmed it. Suzaku was gone.. Then afterwards, we went running off around the palace. I went along with Tamahome and Tasuki and Chichiri followed. I was running ahead when I bumped into someone.  
  
"Oh I'm so-" I stoped when I reconized the face. "N-Nuri----AHH!"  
  
All of us started to run off and we burst through the door where Miaka and Hotohori were. "Nuriko's alive!! He's come back from the dead an-"  
  
The door opened and it cut me off. I looked over and saw who I saw was Nuriko. Miaka looked at the person. "NURIKO!!!"  
  
She went and hugged him, but then immediatly pulled away. "Breasts?!?!"  
  
Hotohori stepped up. "Miaka, this is not Nuriko, this is my Empress."  
  
"My name is Houki." she said bowing politley.  
  
Empress?...She looks exactly like Nuriko.. Then I remembered my dream 'I will always be always be near by'...could this be what he meant? "Her resemblence shocked me.. But I felt as if Nuriko brought us together.. And now it's your turn, Miaka."  
  
She looked up to him a bit confused. "Since Tamahome's no longer a Suzaku seishi, and you are no longer Preistess, then you may get married any time you wish."  
  
Married.. Miaka was a bit young for that..What was she, 15? And if they did anything...that wouldn't be good.. "Majesty, Kutou is starting to invade."   
  
Invasion? Of course... They must've wished Suzaku to be sealed away. Then they're starting the invasion.. We all agreed to help, I might not be as clever as I use to be, but I could still fight against them. With the skills that I accquired through the years I stayed in this world, I can do this. I prepared for the next day, it was coming real soon, and I needed rest, and yet I needed training. I sharpened my sword and then put it away. I realized when I was healed, my arm was healed as well, all for the better. Now I can use both hands to fight against Kutou. I don't know how it would go.   
  
Night fell and I went to my room, I took my sword off and slowly put my sword down, then changed into my robe to sleep in. We're going to war.. We're actually going to war.. A maid came into my room. "Would you like anything, Chiriko-sama?"  
  
I thought for a moment.. "Can you get me a towel and bath robe so I can go into the hot spring for a bit?"  
  
The maid bowed. "Of course Chiriko-sama, we'll get that for you immediatly."  
  
"Thank you."  
  
The maid left the room, only to be returning shortly with a bath robe and a towel. "Thank you very much."  
  
"Would you like your clothes cleaned, Chiriko-sama?" asked the maid.  
  
I bit my lip. "..Um.. I guess so..If that's not too much trouble.."  
  
"Of course not, Chiriko-sama." She walked over to my desk and picked up the clothes that infact did need to be washed because they looked horrible, they were in deperate need of wash.. Once the maid left the room, I got into my bath robe and headed to the palaces hot spring.. How convinient to have a hot spring where you live.. At least now, I get the chance to relax, peace and quiet at last.. at least for tonight. I came to the hot spring and the maids opened the door for me and and I went in as they closed it behind me. I took my bath robe off and put my hair up with the towel.   
  
I dipped in the refreshing water, There was a small mountain of rocks in the middle. I came to the other side of the rock and I sat back against one of the rocks and closed my eyes. Everything since I came to this world.. It has been strange.. Chiriko said that it was because I would commit suicide in my own world.. I most likey would've.. Jason trying to kill me.. killing others.. Ellyn falling into a coma, my father dying.. Everything had gone wrong the moment I came back to America.. Now I realized, my life had always been a bit rough.. I shoud've stayed in Japan. Then again.. I would've never found that book if I didn't come back to America..  
  
Then again.. I promised Ellyn that I would come back. Also, my father.. I wouldn't want him to be there by himself for too much longer.. I miss everyone, by now.. if Ellyn didn't get out of her coma.. Then she might be dead by now, or not.. I don't know.. I've been in this book for 6 years..I can't believe how much the time passed with me without my memory.. It was probably for the best, I would've been so homesick if I stayed here that long and remembered everything.. especially when I first came here. I might not have met Toroki, and I would've never gotten to know Namame.. everything would be so different if I had my memories.  
  
"Kibou.."  
  
I opened my eyes and looked beside me. Houjun.. I blinked several times. "How long have I been asleep?" I asked sitting up.  
  
"Five minutes since I got in, I didn't even see you in here, no da..you were on the other side of all these rocks so I didn't see you.. I came over here.. and.." Houjun turned his head away, blushing.  
  
I looked down.. Oh yeah, I'm naked.... I blushed furiously and turned around. For a few minutes, I could only hear the dripping of water around us. "..Um well, I'll let you have your privacy, no da." Chichiri said breaking the extremely awkward silence. I heard water swishing as he moved. I turned around, seeing him leave, I actually didn't want him to. "You don't have to if you don't want to." I said trying to keep him from going.  
  
He slightly turned his head. "..I don't want you to be uncomfortable, no da."  
  
I shook my head. "I don't mind, you don't have to go."  
  
I sat back against the rock and hugged my knees. "Your lucky, Houjun.." I said looking at the water as he sat next to me.  
  
"Why's that, no da?"  
  
"Because you only have to cover your bottom half."   
  
He chuckled. "You don't have to hug your knees, Kibou no da.. The water's up past our chest and I can't see my hands, so I wouldn't be able to see you, no da."  
  
I smiled at the fact that he was avoiding to say certain words. I laid my head on his shoulder. "What's wrong, Houjun? Afraid to say big kid words?" I teased. He put his arm around me. This felt alot more comfortable than anything with Jason... There was a difference.. There was love.. I shivered at the thought of why I loved Jason..  
  
"What's wrong, no da? I know you can't be cold, no da."  
  
"..I thought of why I even loved Jason.."  
  
Chichiri stiffened a bit. "Do you still love him..?"  
  
"Of course not, not after what he did.. He tried to kill me.. And I don't think I ever did.. The only reason I stayed with him.. was because he saved my life."  
  
He seemed to hesitate to ask, but I would tell him.. If he did ask.. "..What did he do?"  
  
"I'll say this first.. It's nothing compared to what you've done for me.. Anyway, Jason always liked me in school, when he asked me for a date.. never having a boyfriend, I said yes.. Then there was one night.. where I was walking home alone.. It was night.. I didn't know how to defend myself then.. Apparently there was someone near me who these people where looking for and there was a drive by shooting.."  
  
"Drive by shooting? What's that?"  
  
"It's where a gang or mob.. maybe hitmen.. I'm not sure, but they pass by in something they can get away fast in and try to kill someone.. The person who they were trying to get fled the sceen but while the shooting happened, apparently, Jason followed me and took a shot in the shoulder.. He survived of course, but I never forgot what he did for me, so I stayed with him, remembering what he did.. But he was so abusive and mean..I'm glad that relationship ended.. I'm glad I'm with you."  
  
"..Kibou.. The war coming up.. I really want you to be careful out there.."   
  
I nodded. "I know..I will, I promise. Nuriko gave his life up for our sake, I won't forget that."  
  
"Kibou, all I have to sa-"  
  
"Cannon ball!!!!!!" yelled the obnoxious voice of Tasuki that was followed by a gigantic splash.  
  
I smiled and got in a little deeper. "I'm going to stay here.. of course not because of you, but Tasuki,"  
  
Tasuki came around the rocks. "Hey Chichiri! Didn't realize that you were in here!"  
  
"Your awfully happy, Tasuki, no da."  
  
"Well, it is the last night we could actually do something before the war, so why not?"  
  
He looked over and saw me. "Kibou, didn't notice you were here either."  
  
"Noticed you, your loud enough," I said in an aggitated tone, although I didn't mean it. "Well, Tasuki.. Your still standing and showing off." I said not looking down there, but knowing it was there.  
  
"What the-- Fuck!!" He covered himself by going deeper in the water. I giggled because he was blushing and started to swim a little deeper. This was a huge hot spring, one part to rest and another to..it seemed to swim around. I really wish I had a bathing suit.. Which reminded me, Miaka had one. I swam to the other side of the rocks and got out. "I'll be right back." I called out and got my bathrobe on and ran to Miaka's room. I knocked on the door and heard nothing. I didn't even hear snoring in there. I opened the door and saw that she wasn't in there. Wonder where she is? I walked over to her backpack.. I know she won't mind.. I dug through her back pack and found a red bikini. I hated bikinis.. I never thought too highly of them.. oh well, it's better than being naked in the hot spring with two guys. They're covered and I have more trouble. I put the bikini on, but I couldn't tie my back. Damn it.. this is another reason I hate bikinis.  
  
I put my bathrobe back on and headed back to the hotspring. The two were in there, I could tell, Tasuki had started a water fight. I held the back of the bikini and went into the water. I came back around and the two stopped fighting when they saw me. I laughed slightly to myself, thinking of Chichiri actually going along with a water fight.. either that Tasuki was just sitting there splashing him to get him to fight back. "What?"  
  
"What the hell is that?" asked Tasuki.  
  
"It's called a Bikini.. or swim suit. It's what girls swim in when they go to swim, in this case, there's you two in here so I put it on."  
  
"Why are you holding your back, no da?" asked Chichiri.  
  
"Oh yeah!.. Um, I couldn't tie the strings on my back."  
  
Chichiri got up. "Here." I turned around and held my hair up and he tied it. "Hey, Kibou, there's a picture on your back,"  
  
"A picture?" I asked puzzuled trying to look at my back. "Yeah, right here." said Chichiri touching my left shoulder. I blushed since he touched it so softly it tickled. I tried to think of what was there. "Oh yeah, Miaka has one too, it's called a tatoo. It's a star, right?"  
  
"Yeah, na no da. A red star, no da."  
  
"Yeah, Miaka and I got it after I got out of high school...It was just something just to have.."  
  
Tasuki got around the rocks to the other side. "Well, we have to get to sleep, and I'm getting tired, so I'm gonna go." he said as I heard him leave the water.  
  
I heard the door open. "Don't DO anything in there!" Tasuki yelled and closed the door.  
  
"We should get to sleep too, no da." said Chichiri heading to the other side.   
  
I nodded and followed him. I waited a bit and headed out, Chichiri helped me up and handed me my bathrobe. "Thank you." I said.  
  
He opened the door and held it open for me and closed it when I was out. He went ahead of me, but he was silent, it seemed a bit awkward, we were together now, but it only changed a little bit between us... it was only because it was awkward.. and Chichiri was no longer a monk, since he was too close to another female.. but he wasn't going to make it go any further.. I guess I should try.. I ran up to Chichiri and wrapped my arm around his. "Can I stay with you tonight, just tonight, it's our last night before we have to go to war.. So can I?"  
  
"Why would I refuse, no da?" he asked looking down to me.  
  
We came to his room and lit a candle. I was about to lay down on his bed, but then he came behind me and embraced me from behind. "Kibou.. I didn't get to say this before.. but all I have to say is..I'll always be with you, now that we're going to war, anything could happen, you might get hurt but I'll do anything to protect you.. I lost Kouran, my family, and Hikou.. I won't lose you."  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
I wanted to add that little cute part in there, it was a long part, but at least I got it in.. I'm glad I did that chapter over, I'll get out the next chapter out soon, or I should get the next chapter out soon. Please reveiw!  
  
~*CosmicMoon 


	20. Chapter 20: Fear

For those of you who are wondering, I never stopped updating, I've just been having computer problems, see, I had this chapter written out, but then, it got deleted and I had to start over, which I stalled on for a long time, so I took forever.. Sorry People!  
  
And I have another reveiwer! VanyD I think.. Yeah.. I agree with pretty much everything you say, but I'm not changing anything untill I finish. Why, because I'm too damn lazy and I feel like writing the rest. I'll fix it, but not now.. Yeah.. Oh I have to say one thing to say about Tasuki, he isn't THAT rough, he could be playful and teasing.. But to other people he might be mean, well, that's how I see him..  
  
~*~*~*~*~  
  
Chapter 20: Fear  
  
~*~*~*~*~  
  
*  
  
When I first saw you, I was afraid to talk to you  
  
When I first talked to you, I was afraid to like you  
  
When I first liked you, I was afriad to love you  
  
Now that I love you, I'm afraid to lose you  
  
*  
  
(Chichiri's PoV)  
  
She stood there for a while not knowing what to do, I haven't gotten, or even tried to get close to her since I was afraid to. I didn't know if she wanted me to. Now that the two of us know our feelings for each other.. It's been a bit awkward since we got back, not talking but getting closer, it's strange.. I hadn't been in love with a girl for 6 years.. but of course.. I wasn't sure if I was still in love with Kouran.. or if I'm over her..  
  
I feel as if I was just using Kibou as a replacment.. as if I'm just abandoning Kouran now.. "..Don't worry Chichiri, really.. I'll be  
  
fine, ok? Right now, I'm the only seishi that's actually capable of.. doing something. So if anything, I should be worried about you." She said turning around and hugging me in front.  
  
A bit shocked by what she said, I kept silence which created another awkward silence. "I guess your kinda right.. I guess, no da.."  
  
"I AM right! Houjun, while I'm out there, I'm going to be worried about YOU! So YOU be careful out there!" she said a laughed a bit.  
  
I chuckled slightly. "What you think I'm funny?" she asked teasingly. "Ya wanna fight? Huh? Punk.."  
  
I smiled. "You sure have a way of twisting words, no da."  
  
"Hey, I only speak the truth, so be careful Chiri!" She said and pulled away from me and jumped on the bed. A happier feeling filled the room, she wanted it to be happy and not sad.. I walked past the bed and went to the desk in my room where my bag was. I opened it to the small amount of items that I carried with me. I brought out a hair peice that had a pink flower at the end and two golden sticks came out of it. Something that I was going to give to Kouran, I turned back to Kibou and she was "burrowing" under the blankets. She came back up and her hair was still wet, was more messed up and all over. She looked to me. "The blankets are so thick and soft.. How come your blanket is better than my blanket? My blanket's gay.."  
  
I smiled. "Here Kibou, no da."  
  
I handed the hair peice to her and she took it slowly and looked at it. "Wow.. is this real gold?"  
  
I nodded. "Wow.. Thanks Houjun, I-I don't what to say.. thanks! It's really pretty.. Thank you Houjun."  
  
I looked down so she wouldn't see the emotion going through my head, that she would be able to see through my eyes. "It's something that I thought you might like, no da."  
  
"I do! I really do!" she exclaimed as she started to put her hair up with it. I couldn't tell her that it was orginally suppose to be Kourans..I don't know what she might think.. I looked back up and Kibou had put her hair up in a bun, but let some hair down, for a slight moment, she looked like Kouran... She looked up to me. "Are you ok?"  
  
She actually noticed.. "I'm fine, no da." I said still having my head bowed, I wasn't too sure how I sounded to her..  
  
She came off the bed and up to me. "No your not. Your head is down, and your voice is flat, what's wrong?"  
  
"I can't hide anything form you, can I, no da?"  
  
She smiled. "I can't hide anything from you, so I think we're even." She said looking up at my face. "Your upset about giving me this."  
  
I turned around and sat on the bed. "I'm not upset.. It just brought up something.."  
  
"..Ok.. I'll stop, thanks Houjun.." she said in a serious tone.  
  
She come to the mirror and took her hair down, but then put it back into a full bun. Then she started to take her robe off, I turned away quickly and I felt myself blushing furiously. She came back over to me, I thought she was still undressed, but she was now fully dressed.. Did she have her clothes in here?..  
  
"I'm going out for a bit." She said and kissed the top of my head and was about to leave the room but I grabbed her wrist.  
  
"Where are you going, no da? It's late, we have to get some rest in, no da."  
  
She got out of my grasp. "I didn't get to go see Namame.. I wanted to go see her.."  
  
That's right, we had been in Hokkan and Sairou for so long, I had forgotten what had happened before we left. Namame's Perdiction came back to mind, she knew all along that we would be together, and knew she could escape her death, but didn't.. Because she knew that Kibou would worry too much and would have stayed behind and we wouldn't have been together.  
  
Right now.. If we didn't know of our love for each other.. Then one of us might've not make it through the war. I stood up. "I'm not letting you go by yourself, no da." I said getting up, I quickly got dressed and Kibou waited for me.  
  
When I was done I came to her. "Ok, we could go now." I said as I put my kesa on.  
  
She went out the door, I followed her. We walked next to each other, but that was it.. To me, it felt like another awkward moment. I wasn't use to this.. since we were together, it felt awkward that we were only walking side by side.  
  
I had to crack out of my shell.. Kouran's gone and I'm sad about it..but I can't take it out on Kibou and not do anything that a normal couple does. She hasn't been able to have the comfort of another person like this.. ever.. I wasn't going to ruin this for her now by not doing something that a normal couple does because I'm not use to it, it just isn't fair forher..  
  
A bit hesitantly, I reached my hand out to her and slipped her hand in mine. I looked down to her and saw that she was blushing. She moved a little closer to me and we continued to walk out of the palace, hand in hand. We had to go all the way out of town, it was quite a ways form the palace.  
  
"Thank you for coming with me, Houjun.." she said moving slightly more closer to me.  
  
"I wouldn't let you come out here alone, no da." I said. I felt her shivering and looked back down to her. Of course, with her skirt that short, who wouldn't be cold on a night this cold? Slowly letting her hand go, I took my kesa off and wrapped it around her. My arm remained on her shoulders and she put one arm around my waist.  
  
I heard a small sniffle from Kibou. I looked again down to her and saw a tear slid down her soft cheek. I stoped for a moment. "What's wrong, no da?"  
  
"This is the first time.. The first time that anyone's done that.." she said looking down.  
  
I wiped away her tear and she followed my hand up and faced me. "I just can't believe your with me Houjun, after everything, you stuck with me, and now your even holding my hand.."  
  
I couldn't help but hug her and hold her close. "We're together now..I feel exact way about you." ..But I think I'm still in love with Kouran too..  
  
I slightly pulled away and we came face to face. Her eyes were now glistening the moon above us and her skin seemed pale and soft. I closed my eyes and leaned down to her.  
  
"..HEY!!"  
  
I opened my eyes and looked over and saw Tasuki. I sighed, everytime.. It was getting a tad bit annoying. Kibou pulled away, I could see she was frowning. Tasuki ran over to us. "Where do you think you two are going in the middle of the night? Sneakin' off somewhere?"  
  
"Of course not." Kibou snorted. "We're going to see Namame's grave."  
  
"Who the hell's Namame?"  
  
Kibou's frown only deepened. "You inconsiderate bas-"  
  
"Namame was an important person to Kibou who was killed because of Nakago before we left for Hokkan, no da." I answered before Kibou would lose her head. "How could yo-"  
  
"I didn't know!" Tasuki yelled defending himself. "Damn woman, sorry!"  
  
Kibou's eye twitched. "..'Woman'? Tasuki, I will kick your ass and you will wish you were never born to have those words come out of your mouth!"  
  
"Kibou, calm down, you'll wake someone, no da."  
  
Kibou sighed heavily. "Please Tasuki, Namame was really important to me. I just wanted to pay my respects and visit her grave, since it was my fault that she died.."  
  
"Ok, ok, I get you, I'm sorry!"  
  
She snorted again. "I wish you would say it more sincerely but I guess that's the best that's gonna come out of you."  
  
Tasuki came with us to the end of the town, I felt even more uncomfortable even though I wanted to be close to Kibou. She had already stormed off ahead. We caught up to her and she was on her knees staring at Namame's grave, her arms dropped at her side. I came up to her and saw a sword driven into Namame's grave. On this sword, was Genbu. She looked at the gravestone, I looked at it too. 'Namame, a long respected woman. A honorable Genbu seishi, and a wonderful person. Her sword that she made out of her bare hands will rest atop here, never to be moved. May she rest in peace.'  
  
Kibou reached out and touched the sword, but pulled away quickly when shocked by some kind of force that protected the sword. "..Some one put a curse on it.. It must've been with Genbu's power.. but how?" she muttered to herself. (A/N: and you won't know any time soon.)  
  
She turned to us. "I'm ready to go back. It's late already, I've been a pain in the ass, we need our rest anyway."  
  
She disapeared right before our eyes. She teleported back. "I don't get her." Tasuki said as we started to walk back to the palace. "She wants to be so damn alone. I can't even tell you two are together."  
  
"..She's just not use to it, no da."  
  
Tasuki looked to me. "You haven't worn your mask to often around her."  
  
"…That's how she met me. She likes calling me my real name too.. it's just how she started off with me, and so she likes me without my mask."  
  
Was Tasuki actually really TALKING to me? A normal conversation? ..I guess he's a bit worried about Kibou. Everyone always is. She has a sad look in her eyes a lot, enough that it looks like she going to hurt herself. Her past has been so rough on her. She's gotten so much pain from here too. I guess everyone notices that.  
  
"It took her a while to start calling me Tasuki, so I guess your right… Hey a pub, come on Chichiri, lets have a drink!"  
  
"Tasuki, I do-"  
  
"Come ON! Quit your whinin', it's our last night before the damn war, I want to get that thought out of my head! Come on Chiri!"  
  
I looked towards the palace, I hoped that Kibou was okay.. Tasuki wouldn't get off my case, but I can't help but worry about Kibou. Tasuki went into the pub giving up on me, I didn't want to abandon Tasuki, but I was worried about Kibou, I know that Tasuki could take care for himself. I know that Kibou would as well but.. i can't help but worry about her.  
  
"Tasuki, I'm just going to head back, no da." I yelled into the pub but then when Tasuki didn't answer, I just kinda left. I came back to the palace and back to my room. Kibou was in there and fast asleep. I came over to her, I looked over her head. I leaned down and slightly pecked her on the cheek. Then I climbed into the bed and pulled the blanket over me and we both fell asleep.  
  
~*~*~*~  
  
In the morning, I found Kibou in my arms still fast asleep. Tasuki burst through the door dressed in his armor and ready to go out to war. "Hey! Get up you two! We need to get ready! They're comin'!"  
  
Kibou opened her eyes. "I wanna sleep more.. I don't wanna go to war..."  
  
"Just sleep for now, Kibou no da. I'll wake you after I'm done dressing. It won't take you long to get dressed would it, no da?"  
  
She shook her head. "No, I could get ready pretty quick." she said as I got out fo the bed. When i was about to reach for my clothes, I saw that she went back to sleep. She was tired... I can't believe that Tasuki wasn't tired from staying at that Pub, though I didn't know how long he was there. I got dressed a bit slowly and put m mask on. I then shook her slightly.   
  
"Ready to get up, no da?" I asked softly  
  
She yawned. "..No, but I'll get up.. "  
  
"I'll get us some breakfast okay, no da?"  
  
She nodded and closed her eyes again. I went down to the kitchen and got us something to eat. When I came back up, Kibou was dressed and half her body was hanging off her bed. I set the food on the desk and came ack to her and picked her up off the ground and she layed down, she opened her eyes again and looked at me. "...We have to get going, don't we?"  
  
I nodded. She sat up and we ate our small meal quickly and soon we left for the battle field. Kibou chose to ride a seperate horse, since she herself was fighting against the Kutou forces.  
  
Lightning struck some of our soldiers, te only explaination was that the Seiryu seishi were close by. And in fact they were, we came by them when they were at the top of a cliff. I saw Kibou jump off her horse and draw her sword. She jumped up to Nakago and tried to slash him.. She's making moves too fast. She missed and only hit his armor, he had turned around to protect someone behind him.  
  
Miaka recognized her, it was her friend, Yui. Kibou stayed up there and glared and Yui. "Yui, your on the wrong side."  
  
"Kibou-san, you remember?" asked Yui looking shocked.  
  
Kibou smirked. "My memories are back.. I know everything now.. and I know your on the wrong side!"  
  
Yui looked down and Suboshi came around and slung his ryuseisei at her. Kibou jumped away and back down to us. She was holding her arm. "Dammit, I'm not fast enough. How the hell do I get slower when my power isn't to fight?"  
  
"Suzaku could've granted you more power, no da." I said about to get off my horse. She reached into her robe and brought out a couple bandages. She wrapped it around the arm that she was bleeding from.  
  
"Kibou yo-"  
  
"I'm fine, Houjun. It's kind of deep, but as long as I keep this on untill things cool down, I'll be fine." she said interupting me.   
  
Yui soon jumped off her horse and a blue light surrounded her. She yelled a wish out, a wish to take her and Miaka back to their world. A blue light then surrounded Miaka. Kibou looked to her. "Miaka!"  
  
"Ohne-chan!" She yelled. Kibou ran to her as fast as she could and when she jumped to reach out to her, she disapeared, along with Tamahome and Miaka..  
  
~*~*~*~*~  
  
Ha..ha...ha.. there we go, sorry ppl, that I took so long, I swear, I'll get the next chapter out soon! Reveiw now please!! I know it was short, but I had to rewrite this so many times.. because of my brother with the deletely.. so sorry about that... but I just decided to end it this way! ...yeah..  
  
Opaaru Tsuki starting to use my technique of doing stuff...:P nah, I'm kiddin', continue your story soon too Opaaru!  
  
...It kinda ended abruptly.. and.. moved a little fast there..sorry, I'm just tired of writing this chapter so many times, so I got frustrated with it. So I just wanted to get it out and get to the next chapter, I hope you understand.  
  
And for those who are wondering.. a floppy disk.. wasn't much of an option.. since, I wasn't here when my brother reformated his computer so.. yeah..   
  
PLEASE REVEIW!!  
  
~*Cosmicmoon 


	21. Chapter 21: Unbearable seperation

~*~*~*~*~  
  
Chapter 21: Unbearable seperation.  
  
~*~*~*~*~  
  
(Kibou's PoV)  
  
I opened my eyes and found myself in a normal room.. I knew this room.. it was my old room.. Back when I lived in Japan... I can't be back.. I just can't be!.. Chichiri.. I left him.. I left him after I said I wouldn't!! I sat up quickly, I looked down at myself, my sword wasn't on me. I jumped out of the bed and reached for the knob.  
  
"So Yui wished you out of the book and Tamahome came with you, along with Kibou?" asked the voice of Keisuke.  
  
"Yeah." Miaka's voice answered.  
  
"I'm home!" yelled my mother's voice.  
  
I'm home... I'm actually home... "Why are you two in the hallway?"  
  
"Well.. Ohne-chan's home." I heard Miaka say.  
  
"What?! They found her, did she call?!"  
  
"..She's home, she's in her old room, she's asleep right now."  
  
"Oh my god."  
  
I quickly got back in to my bed and layed down as my mother came to me. "Oh my goodness, Kibou! Your Okay!"  
  
I turned to her. "It's good to see you too, mother."  
  
She leaned down and hugged me. "Where have you been, you've been missing for a month! My goodness, I've never realized how much you've grown!"  
  
That's right... Crap... I've actually been gone for 6 years.. "Well, we'll talk later, I'm just glad your home right now."  
  
"Mother, may I do a long distance call to check on Ellyn?"  
  
"Well... I guess so.."  
  
"I'll pay you back mom."  
  
She sighed. "I guess so..."  
  
I went downstairs to the phone. I was about to reach for the phone. *K----bou-------whe----ar-----ou*  
  
I looked around.. Chichiri?... I tried to reach him through my thoughts. *home* I tried to tell him.. I'm home.. But I have to get back!.. I have to find the Universe of the Four Gods.. Where did Miaka find the book she went through? I reached for the phone and dialed the number. I asked to know about Ellyn.  
  
"She's left the hospital two days ago."  
  
My jaw dropped, but I tried to hold in my excitement. "Thank you."  
  
I hung up and call her house. "Hello?"  
  
"Ellyn?"  
  
"Kibou? Is that you? Oh my god, I heard you we're missing for a month!"  
  
"From who?"  
  
"Jason."  
  
My lips froze when I heard his name.. "..H-he's out of prison?"  
  
"He's out, he got out some time ago.. He's been looking for you.. He said he's sorry for what he did,"  
  
I bit my lip and sighed. "...Ellyn... I'm coming to America... Right now, I'm finding a plane and coming there!"  
  
"No, stay there.. I'll come to Japan, just hold on.. I'll be there.."  
  
"I have something important to tell you, it involves Jason.. yet it doesn't.."  
  
"..What can you tell me now?"  
  
"...I don't love him anymore."  
  
There was a breif silence. "..What happened to you?"  
  
"I'll tell you when you get here."  
  
"Ok.. I'll do it as fast as possible, I already have my pass port on hand, I'll get there.. wait for me. I was planning on coming anyway to see how your mother was doing."  
  
"Ok bye."  
  
"Bye, and another reason I was going to come was--ah--never mind.."  
  
I hung the phone up.. She's safe, Ellyn's out of her coma. I'm so glad.. I went back upstairs. My mother was waiting for me. "You have explaining to do."  
  
"After I take a bath.. If that's ok.."  
  
My mother sighed agitated. "Fine."  
  
I went into the bath room and turned the water on, I made a bubble bath and got in. '6 years, I haven't been able to take a normal bath... now I finally do!..But I couldn't forget.. I had to get back... No matter what, once Ellyn gets here.. I'll pay for her ticket back and I'll go back. I can't imagine how long I've been gone to Chichiri... He must be worried about me.. I looked up to the ceiling, I couldn't help but feel happy that I was finally home.  
  
"Ohne-chan! I need to use the bathroom!" yelled Miaka from outside.  
  
I sighed, my bath was done.. "Ok, be out in a minute.. but I need to borrow some clothes, Miaka!"  
  
"Alright, I'll put then in your room!"  
  
"Thanks." I yelled back and got out of the bath tub. I put a towel on around me and went out of the bathroom. "I'm going out for groceries! I'll be back soon!" my mother yelled as I heard the door close.  
  
I went to my room and saw clothes on my bed, a red blouse and jeans. I put them on quickly and went to the door out. "Tell mom I'm going out for a bit, I'm just gonna go around town, I'll be back soon!"  
  
I left without another word. No matter how happy it made me to see so many familiar things, I was sad. I was away from Houjun, and not even being here long, I missed him. Ever since I was together with him in Konan, I never wanted to be away from him, and I was greived by what happened around me, but I felt more comfortable when he was near..  
  
"Houjun..I'm sorry." I whispered rubbing my arms from the wind that blew by. I walked down an empty park after a few hours, where no one was close to. The street light glowed and didn't make too much light. I sat on a bench and looked down. I heard people in the park, just a couple, then I heard footsteps in the grass nearing me. I didn't turn or even try to sense their ki.  
  
"Kibou?" asked a familiar male's voice.  
  
I turned around, I gasped at the person before me.. my heart filled with fear immediately.. "..Jason.." I whispered getting up.  
  
He had become stronger, obviously, but he was a wreck, I couldn't tell when he took a shower last, it doesn't look like he had any sleep.. Was this all for me? he came around to me. "Kibou, your ok." he said about to hug me.  
  
I took a step back. "Jason.. I.."  
  
"..What? What happened Kibou, did something happen to you?" he asked worried as he came closer, but I just took another step back.  
  
I shook my head. He came closer and touched my hair. "It's grown so much.. You look so much more older.."  
  
Because I am... I am older.. I'm not 18 anymore, I'm 24. "Where have you been?" he asked looking me straight in the eyes which sent a chill down my spine.  
  
"Away.." I said turning away not to face his eyes.. "I can't tell you... you especially."  
  
"Why..? H-have you been with some one else." He said assuming that quickly.  
  
Yes I have. I wanted to say, but I only stayed silent not quite sure how to answer that, worried that if I lied, he'd find out. "You have? You have, haven't you... You've been missing for a month, *cheating* on me?!"  
  
He grabbed me by my shirt. "Who is it?! Who's the god damn mother fucker you decided to cheat on me with?!"  
  
I just shut my eyes and didn't answer him, frightened to death, my old fear coming right back to me. "Who is it?! Tell me now!!"  
  
He pushed me away and punched me in the face. Tears filled my eyes as I stumbled down to my knees, holding the cheek that was hit, as I started to taste the blood in my mouth. Jason came up to me and picked me up by my neck. "Don't you ever..*ever* cheat on me! I don't want you to see him ever again!"  
  
I chocked for air and I could see my vision whiting out and finally, I felt myself scrap against the concrete pavement and fall. "..Don't let me catch you with him.. Because know this, I'll kill both of you and him if you do."  
  
I watched him leave slowly down the road.. Why couldn't I do anything? Why didn't I do anything? Why didn't I say anything? After all those times I've been tormented by him like that.. I couldn't stick up for myself.. I couldn't even fight! I put up a fight against a stronger man then Jason, a stronger man than me! And I did what I could to kick his ass!! And now.. I couldn't do anything!! If Chichiri was here.. If he were here.. then even though I wouldn't have done anything.. He would've been right there for me, protecting me with or without his power..  
  
Tears filled my eyes and I looked down. "Houjun.."  
  
~*~*~*~  
  
(Chichiri's PoV)  
  
"Stay still Chichiri, your weak." Mitskake said calmly putting a cold wash cloth on my forehead. I attempted still to get up ignoring Mitskake's words. "You have to get some rest, I'm sure that Kibou's fine."  
  
"..No, I have to find her! Mitskake..she's all I have left, she's my life... I just have to get to her!" I said even though it hurt my head to talk, I managed to sit up.  
  
He layed me back down, a bit more rashly than normal. "Your in no shape!" He said raising his voice. "The only way you can contact her is through deep meditation, you tried to contact her in another world! You could've died Chichiri! If Kibou was here, she wouldn't want you up! Or to even do what stunt you just pulled off!"  
  
I looked to the side. "..Your right.. but I can't help..but be worried.. The man that ruined her life lives in that world.. She's still afriad of him.. I know she is... I just want to be there to protect her.."  
  
"I know Chichiri.. Just hold on.. You'll see her again." He said getting up to leave.  
  
"How do you know? They disapeared.. we may never see them again." I said with a flat tone in my voice.  
  
He stopped at the door. "She loves you.. No matter what, she'll fine her way back to you. It might take a while.. but don't worry, she'll be back." he said and left the room, closing the door softly behind him.  
  
"..Thank you Mitskake." I said and closed my eyes to rest.  
  
~*~*~*~  
  
(Kibou's PoV)  
  
I heard thunder off in the distance, I got out of the park and looked to the left and right, right was the way home.. Left.. the library.. Miaka said that.. She had found the book in the National Library.. It's time I went there, alot time has passed for Chichiri... I just have to get back! I started running, time was wasting, I had to get to him fast. Dodging people who were hurrying inside before the storm hit, I kept running.  
  
When I was almost a quarter mile from there.. I saw my mother, damn it! I was so close. I stopped to catch my breath, my mother came up to me. "What are you doing out so late, Kibou?"  
  
"..I wanted to see the town.. been away a while.."  
  
My mother frowned. "That's no excuse."  
  
I nodded and looked down. "..I'm sorry." was all I could say.  
  
"Did you see Jason?" She asked as we started walking. She held some groceries that I offered to carry.  
  
I only nodded, not having a spoken response.  
  
"..I see, I saw him today, just a little bit ago..He seemed to be in a foul mood. When I asked him.. He said that it was you.."  
  
I looked up to my mother in shock. "Well.. I..I..."  
  
"He said you were cheating on him." She said her tone getting more and more serious.  
  
"I-I.. He--mom..I-" I stuttered but the words wouldn't come..  
  
My mother frowned in disapointment. "No daughter of mine will cheat!"  
  
Like a scary coincedence, right at that moment, a roll of thunder roared through the air and I felt rain starting to come down. "Apologize to Jason, he's been trying so hard." She said firmly taking the groceries and walking ahead of me.  
  
I stood there, angry and surprised at my mother. She doesn't understand, she doesn't know how much I have suffering from all the pain from Jason.. I'm not going to go back and APOLOGIZE to Jason! She's crazy! The same thing will happen like it did before.. The rain started to pour and I fell to my knees. I watched my mother leave my sight as tears of anger filled my eyes..but I didn't let them fall.. I looked down. "What am I suppose to do.."  
  
"Don't forget! Someone's waiting for you.. in both worlds to see you." said familiar feminine voice.  
  
My eyes widened and I turned quickly. "Nuriko?"  
  
There was nothing there.. The sound of the rain softly tapping on the ground was the only sound.. The rain was the only thing there.. I got up. "...Both worlds?.. Ellyn!.. God, I almost forgot about her.." I chuckled softly. "..Here I am.. Only worrying about something that's not in this world.. when some one can't wait to see me... Nuriko... You always seemed to know what's right.." I said getting up, he's still there for me, like my guardian angel.  
  
~*Next Day*~  
  
I came home at around 3 o' clock in the morning, I slept in untill 1 o' clock in the afternoon. When I woke, I felt as if it was a normal day, waking up in a normal room, with my family.. in Japan.. I felt as if I didn't have a care in the world. When I sat up, I realized a necklace around my neck. I looked down, the ring Chichiri and I shared... maybe that was why Chichiri was able to communicate with me, but being so far away from the book, that must've been the only way he could've communicated with me.. I layed back down.. I need to get back to him.. But I'm not doing anything untill I see Ellyn though.   
  
There was a knock at my door. "Ohne-chan! Ellyn-san's here!" yelled Miaka's voice from outside the door.  
  
I jumped up out of my bed and ran out the door and downstairs where Ellyn was waiting. I glanced over to the living room expecting to see Keisuke watching TV, but it was Tamahome, looking at the TV shocked. Then I remembered that Tamahome came with us, I looked back to Ellyn. "It's so good to see you again, Elly." I said giving her a big hug.  
  
"Good to see you too, Kibou." she said hugging me back.  
  
"I have alot to tell you.. There's so much that happened.. Come on.."  
  
I lead her upstairsto my room and she sat on my bed. "Wow... You look like so much older.. Where you doing drugs?"  
  
"What the hell?! Why in the heck would I be doing drugs?"  
  
"I dunno.. I haven't heard anything, I'm just assuming."  
  
I smiled. "You never changed, even after your coma.. Thank god.. But I am older.. I'm 24."  
  
"oh.... ok...woah.. ok.. What happened now?"  
  
"Ok.. Ellyn.. I don't know if you'll believe me.. but I am 24, I've been in another world for 6 years.. given powers of wisdom.. and gradually fell in love with a man who helped me since the begining.. Always being there for me." I explained slowly.  
  
Ellyn nodded slowly. "...Wow.."  
  
"You believe me right?"  
  
She nodded again. I smiled.. Ellyn, the type who believed paranormal things, and junk like that.. She knows that I wouldn't of had her come all the way to Japan to just tell her a lie. "I know I'm not going into detail... I just don't have time right now...But..just know...His name's Chichiri.. but his real name's Houjun."  
  
"..Ok. That made absolutely no sense.."  
  
"There's something called the Suzaku seishi.. I was one of them....so..Ah, I'll explain it to you later... Come on, you have to come with me, I have to get back to the other world."  
  
She smiled. "I'm glad you found your true love."  
  
I nodded. "Help me pick something out to wear."  
  
She got up and to open my closet. She looked at the mirror to fix her hair and I just stared out the window, waiting. There wasn't any movement for several moments, I looked back to Ellyn, I couldn't see myself behind Ellyn, but I saw her face shocked. "What's wrong Elly?"  
  
"..Kibou..you..you.."  
  
She moved out the mirror's way. My eyes widened and my jaw dropped, I had no reflection!  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
There! Done... Ha ha ha...what now... yeah it was short.. but I just wanted to end it there! I'll try to get the next chapter out soon, and I promise, that when it's out, longer, and alot more exciting, so you have something to look forward to   
  
byes, please review!  
  
~*CoSmIcMoOn 


	22. Chapter 22: What are friends for?

I don't know if this chapters going to be intresting at all.. but it's long! So ya have to give me credit for that... this chapter moves kinda slow.. but yeah  
  
~*~*~*~*~  
  
Chapter 22: What are friends for?  
  
~*~*~*~*~  
  
(Ellyn's PoV)  
  
I looked at her shocked as she approached the mirror. She touched the mirror and the reflection wasn't there.. I didn't know what was wrong.. She was there, but her body wasn't showing in the mirror, like a vampire.. But I know she wasn't a vampire, but at this point, I really wish I knew what was going on. Everyone was falling apart since Kibou was gone, and now that she's back, she's completely changed.  
  
The look in her eyes aren't the same anymore. They were so depressed before, not wanting to live anymore the life she did. It was all ruined by Jason and finally his reign has ended for her sake.   
  
She looked back at me. "What's going on?"  
  
"..I don't know." I said coming next to her.  
  
There was a knock at my door. "Ohne-chan can you come here for a minute!" Miaka called.  
  
I opened the door for Kibou. "Yeah?"  
  
"Can I talk to my sister?" she asked trying to looked past me. I looked back at Kibou, she was still shocked. "Sure.. she'll be down in a minute, k?"  
  
"Ok.." Miaka said a little hesitantly and went downstairs.  
  
I closed the door and went over to Kibou. "Are you going to be ok?"  
  
"I'm not real.. I'm not real..." she said softly.  
  
"Come on, Kibou, snap out of it, your just as real as I am. Now come on, lets go to Miaka."  
  
She looked to me and said blankly, "..My story hasn't ended.. I've come out through the wrong book."  
  
"Your making no sense, come on, lets get you dressed, after Miaka talks to us, we'll get some fresh air and walk it off." I said trying to calm her.. Something I found myself doing alot with her. When she first came to America.. she was so happy.. but kinda sad that her parents split. Once she met Jason, her life fell apart.. I remember doing this.. and it would calm her down.. But I'm really worried about her now. Not that I'm saying I wasn't before.. but ever since she went missing.. Everything weird happened to her.. And over those six years.. who knows what could've happened..  
  
Kibou then opened her closet and looked blankly at the clothes she had left here. I picked out a white tank top, jean shorts, and leather book that was a a couple inches from her knee that zipped up. It wasn't comfortable to wear that, but she wore something like that when she didn't feel like looking like herself. She left it here for obvious reasons. She could borrow Miaka's clothes, but I guess she would've said.. I brushed her hair for her and kept it down for her.   
  
We came downstairs where Kibou's older brother, Miaka, and this really cute guy that looked around cluelessly were waiting for us. Miaka looked to Kibou. "Ohne-chan are you ok?" she asked.. Kibou has a distant look in her eyes.. and anyone would worry when someone's not acting normal.  
  
Kibou looked at Miaka. "I'm ok."  
  
"You can borrow my clothes, ohne-chan." Miaka said, knowing what Kibou usually wore.  
  
Kibou shook her head. "I'm ok.. I'll be fine, I'll just wear what I have here."  
  
Kibou turned her head to the cute guy, she didn't say anything, but only stared at him. "I can't believe you came too."  
  
"..Well.. We're going take Tamahome around, do you want to come with us?" asked Miaka trying to turn Kibou's attention to her.  
  
"Sure." she said looking back to Miaka.   
  
"And we're going to see Tetsuya about.. the place you just came out of." Keisuke said.  
  
I don't see why they're hiding it.. Everyone knew what was going on.. I think.. I looked to Kibou, her expression suddenly changed.. I couldn't exactly describe it.. it was happy, yet not showing much..There distant look was still in her eyes though.   
  
We left the house, and I learned shortly that Tamahome came out of the world with Miaka and Kibou, and Miaka had fallen in love with him and he was born and raised in that world that resembled anceint China, so naturally, was amazed by everything.  
  
We went around town and got Tamahome some clothes, had some fun and just basically showed Tamahome around town. Once we came to a restraunt, where Keisuke was on the phone, so we waited for him. He called Miaka over and Miaka told us to just order. "I need to got to the bathroom." I said leaving the table. Kibou got up with me. "I'll go with you."  
  
We came into the bathroom. "We've been stalling.. I really want to go back.. It's been days for Houjun."  
  
"Just hold on, Kibou, you'll get back." I reached into the purse I had with me and brought out my lip gloss. "Look at me." I ordered.  
  
She looked at me and I put the lip gloss on her and a little bit more make-up. "Why are you putting make up on me?" She asked when I was almost on.  
  
"Making you look pretty for your boyfriend."  
  
She blushed slightly. "What you never thought of him as your boyfriend? You just loved him?"  
  
"..Yeah.. There was so much going on.. It was ok with me.. but the relationship moves slow because he's a monk."  
  
"He's a monk? Than why are you going out with him? Have you two even kissed? I mean you said you were around him for 6 years."  
  
"Well.. Not really 6.. I knew him for 6, but I was around him alot for only 3.." she said turning more red.  
  
I gave her a puzzled look. "3 years! that's hardly a difference! When did you two hook up?"  
  
"Not that long ago."  
  
"What the- you are slow, girl. 3 years?! Geez, How long have you liked him?"  
  
She shrugged. "We kissed once.. But I don't think that could count.. It was when I almost died.."  
  
My head dropped. "Well of course he'd kiss you then! But no other times?! Your crazy."  
  
She laughed. "Well, you'll just have to get back to him and then you said it's been a while for him? Then he'd miss you if you loved you and once you got back, he'd give you a kiss."  
  
She smiled. "Thanks Ellyn... Will you come back with me?"  
  
"What?" I asked a bit shocked.  
  
"Will you come back with me? I want you to meet Houjun."  
  
I nodded. "Of course, wouldn't miss it!" I said and hugged her. We went out of the bathroom and saw Tamahome wasn't at the table and Tetsuya and Keisuke were talking. We came up to them. "What happened?"  
  
"Tamahome overheard about him being nothing but a character in a book, and since he has no reflection or shadow. He isn't real in this world, so he ran off and Miaka followed." Keisuke explained.   
  
"I'm not either real either." Kibou said. Tetsuya and Keisuke looked at her shocked. "I went into the book through a different book, it's not very clear, but I remember the name of it was The Universe of the Four Gods: The Story of a Warrior. I came out through that book so really,I don't exsist, I'm a character out of that book because my story isn't over."  
  
"So that's how you got in.." said Keisuke. "So you have to get back."  
  
"That's right.. Can I see the book, I want to get back immediately." Kibou said not a hesitation in her voice. She really wanted to get back.  
  
Keisuke looked at her a bit worriedly. "The war is still going on, I'm not letting you go back."  
  
"Ohnii-san! I need to get back!"  
  
Keisuke frowned. "Haven't you paid attention? Once your story's over, your going to have to leave Chichiri!"  
  
Kibou bit her lip and looked down. "I won't let that happen. Chiriko.. he.. he would've never made me meet Houjun for no reason!! Chiriko.. He saved me!!" She yelled.  
  
"Come on, Kibou, quiet down." Tetsuya said looking around at the people starting to stare at them.  
  
"Kibou, what are you talking about?" Keisuke asked.  
  
"Never mind... You wouldn't understand.. You should thank Chiriko... You'll never know him.. but he saved my life..He gave me another reason to live.. and made me realize why I still should live. So please, Ohnii-san.. Let me go back."  
  
Keisuke sighed and handed her the book. "Lets just find a different place to let you go, you just be careful, there's a war there."  
  
She nodded. "Always am."  
  
I held onto Kibou's arm as we were lead to a spot where there weren't many people, well, no people.. Kibou opened the book. "Ya better not die, ya hear? And you be careful too, Ellyn."  
  
"How'd you know I was going?"  
  
"Because your holding onto her arm."   
  
Kibou smiled and a red light started to surround us and it felt as if I was being sucked into something and I held onto Kibou more tightly. "We'll be ok." I heard her say before we landed, and we landed on someone. There was struggling and we looked down.  
  
"GET THE FUCK OFF ME!!!" the person yelled. We jumped off him and he stood up and gasped for air. "Fuckin'..What the..." He had red hair that was kinda spicky and he wore red armor and had a fan on his back. He looked up and a shocked look ran across his face. "Kibou!"  
  
He was cute! He had fang looking teeth, and he was cute!! So far, all the people I've seen for this world are pretty hot. "Holy crap, when'd you get here."  
  
"Just now." She answered.  
  
"What th' hell are you wearing.. and who's that?"  
  
"My best friend Ellyn. Where's Chichiri?"  
  
He smirked. "First thing you ask. He's in his room, he's kinda sick."  
  
"Sick?! How'd he get sick?!" She pushed him out of the way and started ran out of the room and down the hall.   
  
There was an awkward silence between us, I wasn't sure what I was going to do.. Kibou kinda left me here. He sighed. "She's hopeless." Then looked to me, I slightly blushed. "Come on, I'll take you to her,"  
  
I followed behind him out of the room. I looked out, I could tell this was an old chinese palace, but when I looked to the outside, it looked ruined.. I guess it was because of a war.. I sighed. If this is their war, I can't imagine how it would be with guns and bombs and junk.  
  
"So what did you say your name was?" he asked.  
  
"What? I told you my name?..Oh wait, she did.. My name's Ellyn."  
  
"That's kinda a weird name." he said turning slightly back to me.  
  
I frowned. "Yeah, weird to you, what's your name?"  
  
"Tasuki."  
  
"See.. That name sounds weird to me. Why are all your names so asian like?"  
  
"Asian?"  
  
"Ha ha, never mind, I'm stupid."  
  
We stoped at a door and Tasuki opened it. Kibou was hugging someone who had blue hair.. kinda a weird style and I couldn't really see his face.. this must've been Chichiri. Kibou looked to me and smiled, she let him go and pulled my arm to Chichiri. "Ellyn, this is Chichiri, Chichiri, this is the friend I've told you about."  
  
"Nice to meet you, no da." he said and looked to me. He had no left eye, something had left it with a big ass scar, but he was cute! That make three people, why can't our world be full of a bunch of hot guys that are nice? All the hot guys are either nice..rarely, a big jerk, an ass wipe, stupid, or gay. Or at least in America... "Nice to meet you too."  
  
"Are you ok Chichiri? What happened, how'd you get sick?" she asked looking back to Chichiri.  
  
He smiled. "I'm fine.. You don't have to know, no da."  
  
"Chichiri.. Come on, how'd you get sick?"  
  
Kibou frowned. "You never tell me anything."  
  
"Sometimes that's a good thing, no da. I'll be able to go back to the battlefeild tommarrow, no da."  
  
They cared for each other, I could see that. Kibou finally found someone just right for her. "Hey Kibou, can I take a look around the palace?"  
  
"Sure, um," she looked back to Chichiri. "Um..."  
  
"I'll take her around." Tasuki said behind. "Got nothing better to do, we aren't doing anything untill tommarrow, so why not. You'll trip over yourself since it's dark outside, Kibou, if you try showing someone around."  
  
"Thanks Tasuki." Kibou said and looked to me. "is that ok, Elly?"  
  
"Sure." I said quickly.  
  
"And you'll just share a room with me! Is that ok?" Kibou said getting up.  
  
"Hell yeah! I'm not sleeping by myself here!"  
  
"Ok." Kibou gave me a hug. "Have fun. If Tasuki bothers you, just tell me, I'll kick his ass."  
  
"Ha, I'd like to see you try!" Tasuki said as he lead me out.  
  
"I will don't worry." she called out as the Tasuki closed the door behind him after I was out. We walked down to where there was a lake. "It isn't much right now, since we're in a war."  
  
"I'd think your wars would be better than ours. Damn they have mass destruction weapons, bombs that could blow up countries, cities.. It's just not cool. But does Kibou fight in the war?"  
  
Tasuki nodded. "We all lost the power of suzaku, and she could still fight since she wasn't one who lost a physical ability. So she's are better fighter."  
  
"She's a fighter? That's strange... She could never fight for herself back home.. so she always got beat up by Jason... She doesn't like many guys, how's she get along with you?"  
  
He shrugged. "She likes to stay around Chichiri. She stuck to him like glue."  
  
"Does he mind?" I asked looking around at the palace walls and the scenery around me.  
  
"No, he's just the same! If you look at those two, they were meant for each other. It's almost annoying, but yet, they haven't done a thing.. God it's been a while since I had a drink. Do you want to go to town, or do you want to go back to Kibou."  
  
"Both ways, it's really awkward... Can I get some clothes of this worlds. I'll feel even more awkward standing out."  
  
Tasuki frowned. "I don't feel like goin' all the way back!"  
  
"Do you have any money with you, I'd buy it myself, but I don't have this world's money."  
  
"Ah why not.. I actually don't know what going to be open now that the war's going on... Actually, screw going to town, I'll just jack it from the kitchen."  
  
"Are you an Alchohalic?"  
  
He looked at me weird. "..Uh.. no... I don't think I am.. Anyway, ya comin' or not?"  
  
"Yeah!"  
  
~*~*~*~  
  
We got a bunch of sake from the kitchen and both of us got a cup. "Sake.. Never tried it before." I said looking at my drink.  
  
"Really? Your missin' out then. Go ahead and try it."   
  
I drank the small bowl of sake quickly. "Damn, you just downed it."  
  
"What? That's nothin'!" I said pouring myself another glass.  
  
"I bet I'll beat ca'!"  
  
"Your on!"  
  
~*~*~*~  
  
(Kibou's PoV)  
  
I hugged Chichiri tightly while laying down on his bed. "I'm so glad your ok, no da." he said.  
  
"I'm glad I'm back."  
  
I sat up. "Intresting what your wearing."  
  
Looked down at myself and then realized what I was wearing. I looked to him and smiled. "It was what I left at Miaka's house."  
  
I looked at my boots, my legs, I realized there were scraps all over them.. I guess Ellyn didn't pay any attention to those... She has seen stuff like that all the time.. It's been so long since I had been thrown to the floor like that.. And for the 6 years I had been here.. It was the first time I was thrown down by someone else, other than Nakago.  
  
"Something wrong, no da?"  
  
I looked to him. "Huh? no!" I said hiding my legs from his veiw. "I'm ok, don't worry."  
  
I heard a growling stomache and it wasn't from me. I looked to Chichiri, this was the first time I had heard that from him. He looked down. "I guess I haven't eaten in a while.."  
  
"How long?"  
  
"Too long."  
  
I frowned. "Chichiri, your suppose to eat strait! Come on, can you stand, if you can't I'll get you some food."  
  
"I can stand." he said getting up from his bed. He stood but then fell, I quickly caught him. "I guess that took more energy out of me than I thought it would."  
  
"Lay back down, Chichiri."  
  
He shook his head. "I can walk, I need to get out of this room anyway, no da."  
  
I held onto him as we went down to the kitchen, where it was empty, I found a candle and lit it. I made him sit down on a chair. My boots were getting really uncomfortable to walk around in, but I kept them on. I fixed up something small for him. Once he started eating I sat in a chair next to him and stared at the candle flame.  
  
"Chichiri, back home. I heard your voice calling out to me.. How'd you do that?"  
  
He kept silent. I looked to him and he wouldn't make eye contact with me. "You haven't said a single thing since I came back. Why haven't you been telling me anything? Your sick and you won't tell me how, and you won't even tell me how you communicated with me, why?"  
  
He looked up to me and smiled weakly. "Because I love you."  
  
I slightly gasped and blushed furiously. It was as if it was the first time he said that.. but it almost was. I didn't know what to say back to him.. It was awkward since I wasn't use to it. I kept silent the rest of the time and waited for him to finish eating. Then I helped him up and lead him back to his room. He seemed to gain a bit more energy from the food he ate. He sat on his bed but didn't lay. I sat on the bed next to him. "Are you going to tell me anything today?"  
  
"I missed you, no da."  
  
I laughed and hugged him around his neck. He's so sweet, his words just peirce right through me and just seems to brighten me up. I love him so much. I didn't want to let him go, I never will..  
  
"Are you going to tell me anything, no da?" He asked wrapping his arm around me and making me face him. "You haven't told me anything either."  
  
I smiled. "I love you."  
  
He blushed. He looked so adorable blushing! He leaned into me and I closed my eyes.  
  
"Hey Kibou!!" yelled Tasuki. He burst through the door with Ellyn. We both pulled away from each other and saw a very drunk Ellyn and Tasuki. "Guess what, Kibou? I beat Tasuki! I beat Tasuki drinking!"  
  
I sighed. "Your not even supposed to be drinking Ellyn."  
  
"So?! I stil beat him! And Tasuki's just as hold as I am! So I win!"  
  
So close, I was so close. "Come on Ellyn, let's go to sleep." I said getting up. "What I'm not tired!" She whined. I came over to her and she callasped in my arms. "Yeah.. not tired..."  
  
I picked her up and went out of the room. "Good night Tasuki, Chichiri."  
  
"Nice timing, Ellyn.. I was so close." I said walking down the hall.  
  
"Hey, what are friends for?"  
  
I sighed heavily and opened the door to my room.  
  
~*~*~*~*~  
  
There! It just made this chapter kinda a small chapter to introduce another character. Tasuki wasn't completely himself but I didn't know what else to write, so sorry for that, but I got it out quickly. It took a whole day.. I've looked over and everything, I tried my best not to rush it.. so I think it went a bit slow... Yeah.. I have too much time on my hands and I'm not taking advantage of it and going out.. but oh well, writing's fun.  
  
I hope this chapter was ok, reveiw please!  
  
~*CosmicMoon 


	23. Chapter 23: War

Dammit, I'm so sorry that I took weeks to get this chapter out, but recently I've been uninspired to write this story since I've suddenly found an obsession in the show Inuyasha. So, for the longest time, I haven't written and I'm really really sorry. And also, this chapter isn't worth while, a little fluffy, but I have something in mind after this story is over, almost a small sequel for the story, so yeah..this isn't the best chapter but I tried getting it out sooner, but it was my lazy ass that wouldn't get it moving and my inspiration had been lacking so yeah... sorries  
  
~*~*~*~*~  
  
Chapter 23: War  
  
~*~*~*~*~  
  
(Kibou's PoV)  
  
I got up early that day to find my clothes to go out to war that day. I found them, but I couldn't find my sword. I went out of my room and decided to go to Mitsukake first, to findout what really happened to Chichiri. I went down to his room and knocked on his door.  
  
"Come in." he said from inside.  
  
I opened the door and saw him all dress and ready to go out, just packing a few medicines. I walked up near him but sat on his bed. "..Um, Mitsukake.. If I asked you something would you tell me?"  
  
He stopped packing at looked up to me. "It depends on what it is."  
  
"Well.. I just want to know what happened to Chichiri.. How he got sick.. I thought that you would know since, I know you took care of him."  
  
Mitsukake smiled. "You both have your secrets that should never be told. He got sick because he loves you so much. You love each other so much, it's amazing.. I doesn't seems to show physically, but I as well as everyone else knows how much you two care for each other. Nuriko saw it before anyone, even the two of you."  
  
I smiled faintly and looked down at the thought of Nuriko. "Yeah, he did alot for us..But.. Why won't you tell me what he did?"  
  
"Because, Chichiri wouldn't want me to."  
  
Mitsukake finished packing and put the bag around him. "Chichiri should be able to go out with you to the battlefeild."  
  
"I know.." I said, disapointed that I didn't get anything out of Mitsukake either.  
  
He got up and got something from his closet, it was my sword. He handed it to me. "You dropped it when you left, Chichiri was in too much shock to notice that it dropped."  
  
"Thank you Mitsukake."  
  
I sighed and got up, I went around the bed, "I'm gonna go check on Chichiri."  
  
"Here give this to him." he said, I turned around and he threw a small jar at me. "Tell him to take that before he leaves, it'll help him."  
  
"Thanks!" I said brightly.  
  
He smiled. "Be careful out there, Kibou."  
  
"Always am."  
  
"Just, do that for Chichiri. I know that he'd fall apart if you weren't there, and Chichiri won't be able to fight and I'd probably end up tended the sickly and injured. So I'll look out for Chichiri for you." he said sincerely.  
  
"Everyone's...looking out for us so much.."  
  
"The two of you, we know that if one of you died.. then there would be just sadness and regret from either of you.. but if both you were alive..then that works out just fine.. but if both of you died.. The team, the seishi.. Would have a great loss."  
  
"Your making it sound like the team would fall apart without us.. What about you? Where would we be without you?"  
  
He only smiled. "I'm not important. I really have nothing to live for other than the seishi and the preistess. So if I die, it won't matter."  
  
"But your so important, Mitsukake. Don't talk that way, your just as important as the rest of us. Please be careful out there." I said and went out the door down to Chichiri's room.  
  
Once I got to his room, I knocked on his door. "Come in, no da." he said.  
  
I opened the door, he was all readying to go too, I strapped my sword to my waist before I came in and closed the door. "Um..Morning Chichiri."  
  
He stopped packing and looked up at me. He smiled. "Morning, no da."  
  
I sat down on his bed and watched him pack. I thought about last night, and what could've happened.. I looked down and blushed at the thought. I heard him stop packing, I looked up, I could still feel that I was red. "Are you ok, no da? Do you feel ok, no da?"  
  
"Yeah! Yeah!" I said nervously. "I'm fine, perfectly fine!"  
  
He looked at me a bit strangely. "Are you sure, no da? Your all red."  
  
I felt myself blush more and more, this time there was nothing wrong with me and he was still asking, and I know he won't drop it. He's always so worried about me..He cares so much, so sincere.. I jumped up and hugged him around his neck. "What's this for, no da?"  
  
I hugged him even tighter. "Because your so cute, and your actually asking."  
  
He chuckled slightly. "I just wasn't sure, no da."  
  
I giggled. "Your so cute! I can't believe you actually ask!"  
  
I pulled away from him. "Ok, I'm good, I'll let you finish getting ready,"  
  
I was still kind of standing there, with his mask on I couldn't see it, but underneath, I knew that he was blushing. I smiled. "I'll get us some breakfast." I walked out of the hallway and then breaking there was a break in the silence.  
  
"AHHhhhHhhhHhHHHH... Kibou!! Kibou!! Kibou!!!!!" yelled Ellyn's voice from my room. I ran down the hall to my room and opened the door quickly. "Are you ok?"  
  
She snifled. "You left me alone."  
  
I sighed. "I was just checking on Chichiri."  
  
"Your too obsessed with him." Ellyn said getting out of bed. "What?" I asked. "I am not!"  
  
Ellyn smirked teasingly. "You know you are!" She said and laughed slightly. "But I'm am really glad you have someone your this devoted to."  
  
I smiled. "Thanks again Ellyn. Is there anything I can do for you? Like at home, here.. whatever, either buying you anything ot stuff like that?"  
  
"Oh you don't have to." She said a little hestiantly, but I knew she wanted something out of me. I put my hand on my hip. "Come on Ellyn, We're best friends, you can tell me. It's the least I can do. Anything, just name it and I promise I'll get it for you."  
  
Ellyn was slightly blushing and looked down. "Well.. If you can get me a date with Tasuki.."  
  
I grinned. "Of course! You like him already?"  
  
"Well, he was really nice, and I really like him.. I just want to get to know him a bit more.."  
  
I put my hand on Ellyn's head. "Glad you found someone to like. You haven't liked anyone, have you? Well, maybe small crushes..."  
  
Ellyn nodded. "Yeah, but I really like Tasuki. And he got me to drink, I don't know how, but he got me to drink! You can't even do that!"  
  
"Because I wouldn't want you to. Your 17 years old, young lady, you shouldn't drink."  
  
She smiled. "I know, but hey, I'm not under age! Legally, I am able to drink in this era of time! Tasuki's the same age as me too!"  
  
"But he drinks like hell. But just know that Tasuki hates girls, so don't be too girly."  
  
"When have I been?"  
  
I laughed. "I should know that..."  
  
She nodded. "Of course,"  
  
"I'm sorry if your alone for a bit, I can't get Tasuki to stay with you, doubt he would, but stay with Mitsukake and Chichiri ok? I'm gonna be out in the battlefeild."  
  
"Ok... Wait, why is Chichiri not fighting and you are?"  
  
"..Well, Chichiri's a monk.. so you know."  
  
"You got a monk to fall in love with you.. You are strange."  
  
I smiled. "It is a long story, but trust me, after everything is over, I'll tell you everything."  
  
"Aight." she said and we headed out to the battlefield.  
  
(Ellyn's PoV)  
  
I don't get it.. How does any of this make any sense? We're in China and yet, I understand what the heck they're saying.. How is that possible? I followed the two people that I had just met out to the place where they were tending people that were wounded. There were so many sick and injured people, but I guess this is what war feels like. And in the past, they have limited supplies of medicine, so that makes the situation even worse.  
  
Mitsukake was helping everyone he could and Chichiri was running around like crazy trying to get herbs, food and other things, but I saw him occasionally stop and look out into the battlefield. I was helping with whatever I could do without screwing anything up. I tried to do whatever I could.. There were sick people all over the place. I tried to help Mitsukake since he was wounded but refused to sit down. "Can you hand me that over there?" he asked me pointing at the water bowl next to me. I obediantly brought the water for him.   
  
"Ellyn, can you get me another bucket of water?" he asked me.  
  
Without question I grabbed the bucket and went to the nearest well and got it. I ran back, by the time I got back to Mitsukake, I tripped over a rock and spilled the water everywhere. "Ah shit.." I cursed.  
  
Mitsukake helped me up. "Are you ok?" he asked.  
  
I nodded. "Sorry.."  
  
"It's ok, here, your knees bleeding, lets get that bandaged up before it gets infected." he said as he led me to where he was taking care of many people.   
  
I saw all the people in there sick and wounded and stopped Mitsukake from getting the bandages. "I think we should save them."  
  
"Your wound is open for infection, you should get it bandaged up."  
  
"...ok.." I said not finding any other way to argue. He bandaged it and then he moved on to a different person. "Thanks Mitsukake, I'll get that water now."  
  
I hurried to get it and then on the way back, I made sure not to trip and this time I thankfully didn't spill it.   
  
Chichiri finally came back and tried to get Mitsukake to rest, but Mitsukake refused, saying that he wouldn't since he was a doctor and must help the sick. Though it was the most inapropiate time to thin this but I could help but think, that it was strange how Mitsukake was so dedicated to being a doctor, how much he would risk... All of them that I've met.. They seemed so dedicated to what they believed in or cared about. Thats seemed to set our world off from theirs.. Though, I shouldn't say there are people who aren't dedicated in our world.. I know there are.. but there just seems to be alot here.. to me..  
  
"Shouka! Shouka! Hold on Shouka!" A woman yelled coming over to Mitsukake's direction.  
  
Mitsukake immediately got up and came up to the woman, who was with her husband holding a small baby. Mistukake came up to the baby and started to mutter.. I couldn't hear him or see what he was doing. I moved to see what he was doing. He held a small red bottle, Chichiri held him up. "Don't do it Mitsukake.. You don't have your powers."  
  
He started to talk about some kind of power that someone released even though they were dead. I didn't understand what he was talking about. But before my eyes..there was a green glow surrounding the small child and Chichiri started to scream hysterically.  
  
(Kibou's PoV)  
  
I pain went through my body, a horrible pain that meant something was wrong. I looked over to where Chichiri was suppose to be and a green light flashed. "What's going on?" I asked to myself.   
  
All of a sudden I felt a stab through my shoulder from the back. I screamed and turned around. The fallen Kutou soldier let out his final blow at me. I chocked and fell to the ground. "Bastard." I muttered.  
  
"..Karan.." He muttered and fell. It struck me then.. All these soldiers.. were no different than us.. I held my stomache and coughed. I refused to look down at ground, knowing what was there. On my knees I saw some soldiers retreat. I held my shoulder and took out the sword as fast as I could bear. "Kibou, are ya alright?!" asked Tasuki running over to me helping me up. "Holy crap, Kibou. We have to get help for you!"  
  
"What..happened?.. The light.." I asked dazed as he picked me up.  
  
"That's what I'm tryin' to find out, I'm takin you to Chichiri."  
  
He ran over to where all the injured were and Mitsukake was being held up..but just by looking at him.. I knew.. Tears filled my eyes and I stumbled of Tasuki's arms and tried to get over to Chichiri. "Mitsukake.. he can't be.." I said.  
  
Houjun looked up to me. His mask was off, and I saw him for the first time in so many years.. The first time.. I see him crying... Tears were streaming from his eyes and what was greif, quickly turned to worry. He saw my bleeding. "Kibou-"  
  
"I'll be ok."  
  
"Oh my gosh, are you ok, Kibou?!" Ellyn cried coming to my side.  
  
I nodded. "Just a cut."  
  
"What the fuck are you talking about?!" Ellyn cried. "That's not no fuckin' cut!"  
  
My head started to ache horribly and I fell to my knees. Suddenly everything became a blur to me and I fainted.  
  
~*~*~*~~*~*~*~  
  
I again apologize for taking.. about two months.. holy crap. And this chapter wasn't too great, I'M SO SORRY! I'll seriously try to get the next chapter out soon! And what's worse is this chapter's short... And I'm having a hell of a time trying to find time for this. And I don't have a computer at my house anymore, I have to wait till the weekends to write, so I'm going to do as much as I can this weekend and I'll try to get it out next weekend.   
  
Sorries, but please reveiw,  
  
~*CosmicMoon 


	24. author's note

author's note: alright, I really sincerely appologize for the delay I've given all of you. I've been on this HUGE writers block and have completely got out of intrest with this story, but what I'm going to try to get back into it..is re edit it.. I would read it over, but all the mistakes I know are in it would bug me so I'm going to re-edit, and change some chapters, make some chapters longer and stuff and yeah..... Once I edit all the chapters then I would most likely want to finish and so I might get 2 chapters out just to make up for my delay  
  
I'm sorry if you thought this was a chapter like I would think when someone does this, but it isn't and then if you like the story then you feel like throwing a rock at the author because they didn't get a new chapter out and a stupid author's note...yes..anyway..um.......  
  
...um... I love you all like...flamingos..on fire.. :))))))))  
  
........shlegaboop..  
  
~*CosmicMoon 


	25. Chapter 24: Approaching Evil

Wow..I said I would get it out next weekend..and I got it out...a month later...or two.. --;  
  
It's not the greatest chapter and probably nothing to look forward to so I apologize ahead of time for that.  
  
ah haha.. I lied.. but I AM rewriting the story and doing some major editing..  
  
Chapter 24: Approaching evil  
  
(Chichiri's PoV)  
  
I watched helplessly at her as she lay frighteningly still in Ellyn's arms.. Ellyn was sobbing, afraid to death for her friend's life.I couldn't move, my tears were still fell from my eyes, but now for the one who I loved.. The one who's laying unconscious, bleeding to death... I just couldn't seem to make myself move.   
  
Tasuki quickly noticed this, and at once realized no one was coming to help her. "What the hell's the matter with you people, we have a fallen warrior!!"  
  
The healers didn't pay attention. They were too busy rushing about, trying to help other people who were just as hurt as Kibou. Tasuki growled furiously. "Fine, ya' pieces of crap, I'll get it myself!"  
  
Tasuki ran through the crowd and made his way to get bandages for Kibou. Ellyn hadn't looked up, her sobbing was steadily increasing as she hovered over Kibou's body.. I came down to Ellyn's level and looked down to Kibou. "Ch..chiri..S-..she's gonna be alright..right?" Ellyn asked quietly, not meeting his gaze.  
  
I patted her back lightly and wiped away my tears quickly, "..I'm..sure.. she could pull through.." I couldn't cry, it would make the situation worse, and Ellyn feel worse. Kibou though... Her wound was deep, I wasn't sure if she was going to last. I reached out my hand and held hers. It was cold now, but quickly started to be warmed up by mine. I closed my eyes and prayed she would be alright. Her hand twitched and I looked at her. Her eyes were closed and she was still the same, but at least she was still alive…  
  
"Get the hell outta my way!!" Tasuki yelled coming through. I looked to the direction of where he was coming from. He was pushing and shoving people in his way aside. He made his way to us quickly. He had gotten some things to help her out. "Alright, we have to wrap her."  
  
Ellyn looked up now. Tears cascaded down her face, but her eyes seemed happy now that Kibou was going to get help. Tasuki looked at Kibou and cleared his throat. "I think you should do it." he said to Ellyn, clearly seeing that the wound was close.  
  
"But I-I- Don't know how to wrap people."  
  
"It ain't that hard! Just do it! Do ya want to save her or not?!"  
  
"But...what if I messed up? W-what if I can't?!" She cried her eyes swelling up with more tears.  
  
"There's no way in hell!"  
  
"Tasuki, calm down, we have to stop her bleeding." I said stopping the unnecessary argument. "I'll do it.."  
  
The two shut themselves up instantly. Ellyn slowly put her in my arms. "I-I'm sorry, I'm just afraid I'll mess up or somethin'.. I don't want to hurt her anymore." Ellyn said bowing her head down.  
  
"..It's ok, no da.."  
  
I pulled down her sleeve, but the reason of Tasuki's awkwardness was covered by her undergarment from her own world. I cleared the blood away from her shoulder, and used the little medicine we had left on her. She twitched slightly when I used it, but her eyes remained closed. I wrapped her wound and it bled through slightly, but the hemorrhaging stopped  
  
I took my kesa off and wrapped it around her. She was only shivering slightly, but I didn't want her condition to get any worse. "the fighting's slowing down for now…Chichiri, find a place for her to lay down. I'm gonna head back." said Tasuki drawing his sword.  
  
"Alright, no da..."  
  
I stood up holding Kibou very close to me, I tried to find a spot for Kibou as Ellyn followed behind me. Her tears had dried on her face, but it was obvious that she could burst in to tears at any given moment.  
  
"She looks so pale...Is she going to be alright?"  
  
"...She should be...I hope she is." I said feeling her forehead, it was at a warm temperature, it would be ok. I laid her down on a small spot among the crowd. "I'll get her water." Ellyn said getting up.  
  
Tama came next to me, his eyes staring solemnly at Kibou. He knew he had lost his master and he could only hope he wouldn't lose another.I gently petted Tama's head and he came into my lap and laid there, purring softly. For a while, there was just the noise around us, but not a single sign of movement from Kibou. I didn't once take my eyes off her. Tama walked over to Kibou and licked her face. Her eyes squinted slightly and she opened them. I sighed in relief.  
  
"Are you..alright, Kibou?"  
  
She sat up and felt her shoulder. "I...think...but I-I didn't realize...how much the enemy...was like us. I killed a man...who was only in it because he had to be." Her eyes filled with the tears I always hated to see. "I killed so many people... I feel so unclean..." She tightened my kesa around her. "...I feel so bad...I thought I was doing the right thing."  
  
She shivered horribly, her eyes blank but full of fright. Like mine had always been in these kind of situations... I didn't know what to do. Ellyn thought quickly and embraced her. "Come one, Kibou, lets get you get back, you'll be ok.... You don't have to fight...lets get you back."  
  
"Alright." Ellyn helped her up and I supported her on the other side.   
  
Kibou went limp all of a sudden and fell to her knees. She began to hyperventilate and held her chest. Ellyn and I dropped to our knees as she kept breathing heavily. Kibou's forehead became feverish and she immediately started sweating. "Kibou! Hold on! ...Can't anyone fucking help us?!" Ellyn yelled at the top of her lungs.  
  
There was no response from the busy crowd. They brushed it off as if it was nothing, as if it was just another injury they could put off. "Chichiri!" Ellyn said panicking and turning towards me. "You HAVE to do something!"  
  
Kibou started to cough and held up my kesa to her mouth. She squeezed my hand tightly and coughed. Her arm suddenly went limp and she fell. Ellyn caught her and I quickly helped pick her up. I then looked down to see blood dripping down from my kesa. Ellyn gasped. "Oh my god! She dying!! SOMEONE HELP!!! SHE COUGHING UP BLOOD!!"  
  
When we still couldn't get any kind of reaction from them, we ran back to the palace hoping to find some kind of medical attention. We luckily found help. They took her away from me and began to treat her. I sat with Ellyn outside her door. Ellyn was staring blankly at the door, fearful thoughts filled her mind. "W-we have to get her back... she-she might not make it."  
  
"Don't worry, no da." I said hearing my voice crack a little. "Kibou has been through a lot, no da, something like this wouldn't get her."  
  
"....I hope..."  
  
I heard her mutter something, but I wasn't sure what it was. I couldn't make out much. All I heard was 'switch'. But now, I'm not sure if I even heard that.  
  
(Kibou's PoV) (a/n: it's been a few months since I started this again... there's an awful lot happening to Kibou isn't there? Poor Kibou, I'm picking on her ;;...)  
  
"Kibou.."  
  
My vision cleared and I saw Houjun looking down at me; holding me in his arms. "Kibou...I love you."  
  
I felt myself blush again. I tried to think of what had happened before this moment, but all I could think of was staring at him. He stared back at me lovingly, yet why would Houjun say this so suddenly? It would take him forever to say something like this. Wait... what's going on..?   
  
My eyes trailed away from his face and I saw we were in his room, but I still didn't know what was going on...why am I in here? His lips suddenly met mine, but the kiss didn't feel warm like what I remembered. I didn't know who this was, but it wasn't Houjun… He started to take my dress off and that's when I knew. I pulled away quickly and pulled the sleeved he pulled down back up. "Who the hell are you?"  
  
"What are you talking about?" He asked innocently.  
  
"You..aren't Houjun!"  
  
"Come on now, we're together now, aren't we?"  
  
My eyes widened. I had heard that before... But it can't be, there's no possible way that he could be here! "Jason." I whispered.  
  
"What are you talking about? It's me, no da." he said trying to sound like Houjun.  
  
"Houjun!" I cried. "Houjun!!"  
  
In an instant I was against the wall and, with Houjun's body, Jason was chocking me. I tried to hit him, but, as much as I wanted to, my body wouldn't do it. All I could see was Houjun. I couldn't hurt him. But this wasn't Houjun! His fierce eyes pierced through me and everything blacked out.  
  
"HOUJUN!!"  
  
My eyes shot opened. Cold sweat dripped down as it had done all those times when I had a horrible nightmare. I caught my breath quickly, I looked around, it was my room...this is my room. I got up and looked at the mirror, the hand marks where he had chocked me were there, it wasn't a dream?! It had to be.. How could anyone get into Houjun's body and possess him like that.  
  
Houjun… I had to find him. I burst through my door and rushed as fast as I could towards Houjun's. I practically broke down his door coming in and I expected him to be in there... and he was. He had collapsed on the floor. I gasped and picked him up. "Houjun! Houjun!"  
  
His eye was tightly shut, and he looked like he was in pain. He was shaking. I had never seen him like this. "Houjun..?" I whispered.  
  
Houjun's shaking suddenly ceased and his head dropped. He was breathing normally but he had completely fainted. "Houjun...god...this is all my fault."  
  
She attempted to pick him up, but she couldn't find any kind of strength in her. 'Houjun..' she thought sadly as she weakened and sat there holding his body close to her.  
  
The door opened slowly behind her, she turned and saw Ellyn and Tasuki looking in. "...Are you alright, Kibou?" Ellyn asked as she stepped in with Tasuki.  
  
"Houjun...he-he fainted...I-I can't pick him up." I said on the verge of tears.  
  
"Aw come on, don't cry fer that!" said Tasuki in his normal tone but a bit warmer. "Yer a girl, girl's aren't supposed to be able to pick up their men!"  
  
Tasuki walked slowly over to me and picked Houjun up. "Gawd, ain't this awkward."  
  
He put him down on Houjun's bed and looked at me. "You gonna be alright?"  
  
I nodded. "It's just all my fault.."  
  
"It ain't no one's fault, quit blaming yerself so much. Just be glad he's alive... and yer alive now too, so Chichiri doesn't hafta worry, so cheer up, Kibou."  
  
"...ok..." I said as I let the tears flow from my eyes. "Aw now come on! I didn't mean ta make ya cry!"  
  
I shook my head. "Don't worry, I'll be fine."  
  
Ellyn sat down next to me and patted my back. "I can't believe THIS is what you've been going through."  
  
I faintly smiled. "It's wonderful isn't it?"  
  
"You should get some rest, you wanna go back to your room?"   
  
I shook my head.  
  
"You wanna be left alone?"  
  
When I nodded, Ellyn stood up heading out. "Ok, but get some rest."  
  
Ellyn motioned Tasuki to get out with her, and they closed the door softly leaving me alone with Houjun. Walking over to him, I noticed his mask on the ground. I picked it up and sat on the other side of his bed. "I wish I knew what was going on... but now...I think you're going to be involved in it..." I said to him even though I knew he wasn't listening consciously. "I think it might be Jason... But I don't want to think about it... I just hope you recover, Houjun.."  
  
I lay my neck down on his arm and put my arms around his neck. "Just wake up soon.." When I felt tears fill my eyes again, his arm suddenly went around me. I looked gently up at him, and saw he was fast asleep. "Don't cry." I saw his lips make out. My tears seemed to disperse and my eyes closed slowly. I hope everything's going to be alright...  
  
Dammit! That was shorter than I wanted it to be!! GAHHH!!!! I NEED TO WRITE MORE!!!! T.T   
  
please forgive my.......................lateness on this chapter...and it's length...I want to try to get the next chapter out soon but I can't make any promises, but I'll try ;;...I really will!! I hope... ;; I feel so bad now ...but please reveiw! And thank you Chiri26, Opparu Tsuki, and Otaku-no-miko for your support by emailing me and inspring me to write.   
  
Also I thank you Opparu Tsuki for betaing this chapter! Wouldn't be the same without your editing, thanks!  
  
Oh and O.T the marks were on Kibou's neck because that's where Jason chocked her. ...and of course I've been reading your notebook! .....or maybe.. gasp YOUR my stalker!!  
  
And to my reviewers, gotta thank you because I love you all!! ...but now...REVEIW!   
  
CosmicMoon 


	26. Chapter 25: Ruined relationship

- I'm so glad my readers didn't go away! . I love you all!!  
  
-.- I've been having so much trouble writing this..since... I don't know what to write!!! TT  
  
I'm still on writers block with this story but I managed to make it through! -.- I hope you enjoy it...I like the chapter   
  
Oh and the first half of the chapter...well...I didn't sleep when I wrote it, you know, dark rings around my eyes...just...kind of became a slight insomniac but I couldn't get to sleep and then for some unforeseen, stupid...strange reason...I had an energy drink....and then I got the reveiw from Otaku Pitcher and then somehow it just clicked in my mind to write. Since now I had the time and some reason, random things happen when I'm half dead/tired/dead.../numb feeling so now this chapter started because of a birthday party that I couldn't sleep at because I didn't have a blanket and I was cold... and I just kept talking. If you actually read all that.... you have now read part of my thinking process that just seemed to be typed down... and how much I ramble!  
  
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Chapter 25: Ruined Relationship  
  
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(Chichiri's PoV)  
  
After what seemed a horrifying yet peaceful sleep, I woke up holding Kibou close. Her arms were around me and her head was buried in my chest. I began to blush, not pulling away from the comforting hold, but not furthering the contact any. The song of the birds sang sweetly in my ears from outside, but the rage of war was still a vague sound in the distance. The war still wasn't over, it was far from being over. I sighed softly to myself. For Kibou's sake...as well as the people fighting... I wanted this war to end more than anything.  
  
A thought suddenly crawled into my head. Why was I in bed? With Kibou? My head started to ache when I tried to remember the events that had occured. Jason...something about Jason...A rush of pain surged through my head and my arms untangled from around Kibou, grasping my head in pain.   
  
I shook Kibou awake; her eyes shot open, and she watched me worriedly. "Houjun? Are you alright?"  
  
"I...W-what happened, no da?" I said stuttering.  
  
I felt Kibou rush out of the bed and with quick light steps, ran out of the room. I was confused but the pain continued to consume my head and the thought of her completely drained out. Sweat started to break out as a cold evil aura filled the room. "She is mine!" A disturbingly familiar male's voice said coldly.  
  
The door shot open and slammed closed and something slammed on the ground. A bit of rustling of what sounded like ice and a refreshingly cool towel wiped away most of the sweat on my forehead. Soft hands forced me back to laying down and the towel was lain on my head. "Houjun! Are you ok? What's wrong? What happened?" She asked in a bit of a frantic tone, squeezing my hand tightly.  
  
"I-I...don't....know..." I managed out trying to ease my headache.  
  
The evil aura still lingered in the air but my splitting headache kept me back from trying to get rid of it...or even know what it was. "K-kibou," I stuttered squeezing her hand back. She looked at me curiously.. "It's ...not safe, no da." I muttered.  
  
"Huh? What was that, Houjun?"  
  
"..Get out, no da." I said more coldly than I intended and I pushed her away from me.  
  
I looked to her, and in the blur that my vision was in, I could see her face hurt. A part me tore out at that moment, I instantly wanted to apologize, but   
  
I don't want anything bad to happen to her. Jason...he somehow possessed me and hurt Kibou. She started to walk back slowly, opening the door and walking out, her eyes were on the verge of tears. She slammed the door and I heard her running. I looked down feeling a guilty rage build inside me. I could help but have the feeling left when the headache grew stronger and the evil aura made it seem like it was turning the room black. I got out of bed and staggered over to the wall where my shakujou stood. I grabbed the golden staff and my body slammed to the ground.  
  
"Ha, ha, ha, ha! How sweet, you try to get her away." The same voice said, each and every word breathed into my soul and sent a chill down my spine.   
  
I held up the shakujou but I stayed kneeling, trying to concetrate on the source of the evil more than my headache. I felt numb at a part of my soul and it almost felt as if evil was growning within me. The same feeling from before. I tapped the bottom of the shakujou on the ground and chanted a spell to cast a barrier around me.  
  
Then I remembered that my powers were gone; whatever I did was useless..   
  
"Ha, ha, isn't this the most wonderful time to come out?"  
  
"W-who are you, and why are you doing this?"  
  
"Why do you think I'm doing this?" the voice said ignoring the first question. "My woman...You stole her from me..."  
  
Jason... it had to be him. Who else would it be? How'd he get here though? Isn't he human? "Where are you?"  
  
"Ha, ha, ha, hmmmm...I think this would be more fun!"  
  
The numb feeling quickly enveloped me. The feeling of evil posessed my entire body but I could still see. I couldn't feel, but I could see. "Now Chichiri, what should we do? Ha, ha I could do the very thing to Kibou that make her run right back to me."  
  
"You can't do it, no da!"  
  
"Just watch me, Chichiri...I won't mess up like the last time." His voice had taken mine, he looked down and picked up my mask and put it on. "What an annoyance this is...but it should help me."  
  
"What the hell did ya do?!" Tasuki yelled bursting through the door. His face was contorted in anger, yet at the same time a bit shocked as he clenched his tessen that remained at his side, ready to use at any given time.  
  
"What, na no da?"  
  
"Don't give me that! Ya hurt Kibou's feelin's that's what! She's cryin' in her room right now and it's not in worry of ya this time!" he spat disgustedly.  
  
I closed my eyes in guilt. Kibou...I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to make her cry...Anything but that... "It was a misunderstanding, no da. I'll just go apologize to her, no da." He made me say it so emotionlossly, and it made Tasuki even more angry.  
  
"What the hell's wrong with ya', Chichiri?"  
  
"Nothing, na no da. I'll go to her room..."  
  
He brushed past Tasuki and walked down the hall. 'Don't you dare touch her!!' I tried to yell, but no sound came out.   
  
"Fool. I stole your voice."  
  
He stopped and knocked on the door. I watched every move he made...but I couldn't feel it... "Yes?" a quiet voice from inside came.  
  
"Kibou, no da."  
  
He opened the door and I saw Kibou turned away from the door, "If you didn't want me there...You should've said... I never thought you'd be so rude about something..."  
  
He walked over to her and hugged her from behind. Kibou made no sign of moving to acknowlegde the hug. "The headache was getting to me and I didn't want to have you too worried, no da."  
  
"So you'd rather have me mad at you?" She said in such a cold tone that it felt as she had just reached out and tore my heart out. How I wanted to apologize to her... How I wanted her to understand...!  
  
"Look Kibou, why are you mad, no da? You get hurt too easily."  
  
Rage started to build inside me. There's only one reason that she's hurt so easily, and it was because of him. He was the source of all her pain, all the emotion-or lack of emotion- she may feel. I tried to concetrate my strength to my hand, I felt nothing, but I kept trying, the anger of him saying such things to Kibou kept me moving. He isn't going to do anything to Kibou... I won't let him... Evil bastard...  
  
Kibou's head turned to him, her eyes were dull in the light, her tears had ceased, but hurt was all I could see when I looked down into her deep brown eyes. "Kibou, come on, I'm sorry."  
  
"I thought you were different..." she muttered turning away.  
  
"You know I am, no da. I was probably just getting annoyed with you."  
  
Annoyed?! -Annoyed-?! How could I -ever- think Kibou was -annoying-?! Her presence enlightens my soul and I treasure every moment with her! How could I possibly think I was annoyed of her?! The fire of rage in my heart burned bigger as I was vastly building thoughts to -kill- Jason.  
  
Her body stiffened, but she quickly got up, pulling away from my body that was posessed. "I never knew... I knew I was clingy, but I never thought you minded it..." she said and her voice had slightly cracked when she said that.  
  
'I don't mind it!!' I wanted to scream, 'You're everything to me, Kibou..'  
  
"You just get in the way. You should go back to that...Jason. Suzaku knows I don't want you."  
  
No...He...  
  
With the little pride she had, she got up, turned around, and slapped me across the face. I felt no pain, since Jason had taken over. He wiped off my mouth where blood now trickled down and laughed.   
  
"Good bye to you too then."  
  
At this point, Kibou had crumbled to her knees and she buried her head in her hands. Jason made me turn away and leave the room as if it was nothing.   
  
He hurt Kibou's feeling without hesitation. That cold -  
  
"Well, I didn't really 'touch' her now did I, Chichiri? Now she'll be running back to me..."  
  
I screamed even though he had taken my voice. Enraged, my heart seemed to be pushing away the evil possessing my body with the negative anger of my soul. "Well... Can't let you do that."  
  
He snapped my fingers and it felt as if I was thrown back. "Useless." He said mockingly.  
  
He came in my room and took the mask off. "I should knock you out so that I could just destroy this body and it wouldn't matter. Kibou will be crying   
  
back to me."  
  
You monster...  
  
"Ha, ha, not much from you, is there?"  
  
I'll kill you...  
  
"Now, now, monks aren't supposed to hurt anything."  
  
The title's lost because I fell in love...You won't take her away... You won't take my Kibou away from me!!  
  
With all my might, the rage surpressed through me and exploded. The numb feeling flooded out and I had won my body back. I saw a body sitting on the floor that could be seen through. It was black as if it was a shadow. It glared up at me, the red eyes showed me the face of pure evil. Somehow, it almost seemed as if a smirk had curled his invisible lips. "Well, you have quite a strong will...But lets see if you live..."  
  
What? What did he mean by that?  
  
The door was suddenly shot down and practically broken to peices. Tasuki eyes burned with more rage than it had before. He held his tessen up now; even though he couldn't use it, he could beat me to a bloody pulp with it.. "So, ya' lyin' peice of shit, ya broke up with her, didn't you?"  
  
He came closer to me and he raised his fist. I held my hands up. "Tasuki! Look, you've got it all wrong! I would never hurt Kibou! You of all people should know that!" I cried.  
  
"That's why she's bawlin' on the floor! You'd never hurt her huh? That's why she'd rather die right now!"  
  
"Tasuki, please! Jason possessed me! -He- said all those things to her! I would never say anything like that to her!"  
  
"Possessed huh? Awful convenient that you're normal now then." He scowled.  
  
"It's a coincidence..."  
  
"Yeah, like I'm going to believe that." He punched me in the face and I went flying into a wall.  
  
"Tasuki, stop it!" Kibou's strained voice yelled. I looked to the broken down door and saw Kibou. She wasn't crying, but she was holding it back. "This is stupid... There's no need to make a fight, it's only a stupid relationship. A stupid childish game... Don't fight him, Tasuki, save your strength...but thanks for caring."  
  
"Kibou-"  
  
"I'm gonna go now." she said cutting me off. She shot a slightly cold glare at me, the only acknowledgement of my existence, and turned away.  
  
"You know, I respected ya, Chichiri." Tasuki spat, putting his tessen away. "Never thought you were like this...and I don't know what made it start..."  
  
I opened my mouth, but shut it quickly. There was nothing I could say that could fix this. Tasuki obviously couldn't say anymore, and left the room, disgusted by me. I got up quickly, ignoring the pain as the side of my head. I quickly got out and saw Kibou almost at the end of the hall. Her head was bowed down and she walked sluggishly. I ran to her as fast as I could. "Kibou, no da! Please, Kibou, stop!"  
  
Her sluggish movement ceased, but she didn't turn around. "Kibou, please hear me out..."  
  
"You're just like Jason... Hurting my feelings with your words...and then apologizing for them and saying you love me...that's what you're going to say...isn't it? Are all men like this?"  
  
I bit my lip, anything that'd I'd say would make the situation worse... The truth would be unbelieveable and there is no lie to make it better. I've never really been in this situation before... This is...our first fight too...I never thought I'd have one with her... but it's for all the wrong reasons! I say one thing.... One thing...it came out wrong...and this happens... The gods must be punishing me.  
  
"Kibou... Listen to me, no da. Please... I'm not like that, you should know that, no da."  
  
"You're annoyed with me... Everyone has their breaking points..."  
  
"Kibou, I was possessed by Jason! I told you to leave my room because I felt an evil presence! When he got into me, he went to try to hurt you so that you would go back to him."  
  
"...Maybe I should give up on men...I should've learned when I was with Jason." She said as if she ignored my last comment.  
  
I clenched my fists. This wasn't working, she's completely against me. She walked away and I let her, praying that this would be fixed over time, even though a nagging in my heart said otherwise.  
  
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Ok...this chapter was a lot longer in my head... but oh well... I hope you liked the chapter, it took a while to think through but it all came out.  
  
Thank you for being my beta otaku-no-miko I love you !! .  
  
....well...that's all I could think of to say... Isn't that a lovely place to end? Anyway, reveiw, I'm almost halfway through the 26th chapter because I'm out of my writer's block I should do a lot better... so reveiw! -  
  
CosmicMoon 


	27. Chapter 26: The annoyance

IMPORTANT NOTE: Ok...I've decided before finishing this story, I'm changing the first chapters...because when I wrote those, I have no idea how this story was going to end. I was thinking something along the line of that Miaka/ Tamahome thing, but that wouldn't be original, so I wanted to change a couple things so that the last chapter of this story would make more sense. So depending how far along I am, the next update will be the first four chapters. It won't change dramatically, but it'll certainally get more detailed...and the 5th chapter because I just didn't like that chapter in general.  
  
I might get the 27th chapter out though... Still kind of thinking  
Chapter 26: The Annoyance = = = = = =  
  
(Ellyn's PoV)  
  
The flowers were blooming on the trees below. They were supposed to be anyway, but the fire burned by war shriveled up their peaceful exsistence and eventually killed them. The harsh music of war echoed through the air as I stared blankly to the source of the noise. Kibou and Tasuki were among the annoying sounds, which left me here alone, along with Chichiri. Chichiri had made no human contact with anyone since the incident which occured a few days ago. It seemed strange though, given three days to soak up the information, it just didn't fit. There was no way that it could. I could always sense such a strong aura from him...but it was never evil. No, an evil aura came from someone like Jason...But it would never come from Chichiri. I felt an evil presence that day when Chichiri and Kibou broke up, I didn't know from where because I was half awake from my nap...and then it left. There definately was something amiss in this situation.  
  
Hearing the tap of human footsteps close by, my head turned slowly in that direction. Chichiri was walking past, his head down, face holding the expression of agitation. The monk pretended not to notice me staring at him and walked right past me. A evil aura was clinging to him though. It wasn't him... it was something next to him. I reached out behind him and felt my hand pass through an usually cold chill. A familiar cold chill too...  
  
"Have you figured it out yet?" a low, cold voice said to me.  
  
Chichiri turned to me as I stood in utter shock. I recognized the voice...I could never forget such a ghastly voice. "Jason...?" I whispered.  
  
"Ha, ha, ha, so we meet hear him, no da?"  
  
A sudden look of distraught painted his face that the mask couldn't hide.  
  
"Ellyn, RUN!"  
  
My eyes widened and I slowly backed away, shocked. What seemed like black smoke squirmed its way into Chichiri's body. The helpless seishi grabbed his head as the evil presence grew, it grew and grew until I could no longer feel Chichiri's presence at all.  
  
"Now it's time that I could take my revenge... The months when I could've been looking for Kibou, you took them from me...You'll pay..."  
  
A swift but strong punch was thrown at my face, flying me into a wall. I held my cheek, feeling a cut inside my mouth, my back was quickly feeling the pain from the toss. "All those times I had alone with Kibou when I was reasoning with her... YOU distrupted them!"  
  
Reasoning? He calls that fuckin' reasoning?! He slowly walked towards me and I back into the wall, when he came close enough, I ran. I had never ran this fast before...then again, I had never been running for my life! I felt tired quickly, finding my horrible endurance fail me. I looked up and saw I was running straight towards him. I skidded to a stop, tripped and now at his feet I panicked, squeezing my eyes shut. "T-Tasuki!!" I yelled uncounsiosly, half hoping he would come right at that moment and rescue me, but instead, it was met by a hard kick at my side.  
  
I curled up in a ball and held my stomach tightly, desperately trying to catch my breath. I tried to breath but I couldn't. A second before I could catch my breath, another kick was flung at the same spot. My head felt as if it would burst at any given moment. He came closer to me, smirking.  
  
"So...Do you have anything to say for yourself?"  
  
"...You...de..served...it...asshole..." I stammered.  
  
His frown deepened. "You little BITCH!" He struck my back painfully hard. My vision swirled out of focus and my head was just out of question. From the fetal position that I curled into, I knew that he would strike again. When I felt nothing, I focused my vision in his direction. Tasuki was holding the possessed monk against the wall.  
  
"Wasn't tearing Kibou apart enough for ya?!"  
  
"T-Tasu...ki..." I held my throat trying to speak, but only whispers escaped my lips. Tasuki couldn' t hear me... My body started to numb and forced me to slump down. I tried to remain consious and focus my vision but it was twice as hard now. "..St-stop...T-Tasu...ki..."  
  
The red-haired seishi punched his ally in the place where it had already bruised and he flung away from Tasuki. His mask had fallen and blood was streaming from his mouth as he stood on his knees and elbows. The negative energy had dispersed from Chichiri, it had disapeared as if it had never exsisted. He was normal! Chichiri wasn't posessed. I crawled toward Tasuki trying to stop him. My body forced was barely holding consious and I slumped down. Tasuki turned around.  
  
"Ellyn! Are ya alright?"  
  
"...He's...Chichi...ri... now..." I whispered. "N-not...Ja..son."  
  
Tasuki held my limping body up. "Yer not makin' any sense!"  
  
"C-can't...talk..." I strained out before Tasuki's confused and worried face blurred out and my entire body fell unconsious.  
  
My eyes remained closed, but I felt awake. The pain was numbed but I knew if I moved, the pain would all serge through my body.  
  
"God, I feel like shit." I muttered, staring strait up at the ceiling of my given room. The room was dim, but it was still seem liked it was still noon...or somewhere around there. The sounds were the same but the sun seemed to be in a different position... I wanted to sit up, but I was actually really comfortable. I felt like going to sleep again, but I was a bit worried of how badly Chichiri was hurt.  
  
I lifted my hand and a emmense tingling wave shot through my body, dropping my arm back down like a dead bolt.  
  
"Son of a..."  
  
I started to chant softly to myself. "You can do it, you can do it...you can do it."  
  
I flung myself out of bed and landed on the floor.  
  
"F S!! SON OF A FING B !!" I yelled, feeling all the pain of the bruises press down, making it feel as if they were just inflicted.  
  
"GOD DIT!!"  
  
A quiet knocking sound emitted from my door and I shot a glare at it as if it was going to attack. "Ellyn?" Kibou's quiet voice called through.  
  
"Come in." I squeaked.  
  
When she saw me on the ground unable to get up, she shook her head. "You pathetic fool."  
  
She leaned down and helped me up. I winced but I let her help me on the bed.  
  
"How are you feeling?" She asked as she started to take the bandages off.  
  
"Like complete shit...Is Chichiri ok?"  
  
She gave me a strange glance as she started to wrap the new bandages.  
  
"Why are you worried about him? Tasuki told me that he was the one who beat the crap outta you."  
  
"He did, but that's not the point! You see Chichiri was-" My voice suddenly cut off. What the? I tried to whisper but something had shut off my voice.  
  
Some reason, Kibou didn't seem to notice the last thing I said... and didn't realize my voice was cut off so she continued. "Chichiri's in critical condintion...but when I talked to Tasuki about it... he said that Chichiri didn't even defend himself...or even fight back, so he eventually felt bad and quit..."  
  
I wanted to move around and wave around my hands or something, but it really hurt to move. I couldn't talk either, so I only nodded. "Do you need anything, Ellyn?"  
  
I shook my head.  
  
"Alright...I'll have to tend to Chichiri... I don't want to be around him... but I'm gonna try to reason with him."  
  
Ha, ha, see Jason, you can't fool Kibou. She left the room and I felt a little happier, but I wanted to know what would happen. I knew Jason stole my voice...so then he'll be able to get to Chichiri once Kibou gets in there...so...  
  
I sighed deeply. How in the world did Jason get a hold of this power? How'd he find about Chichiri anyway? I don't understand how Jason came into the picture. Something out there definately doesn't want Kibou and Chichiri to be together... Giving that power to Jason...  
  
What did this though? It's almost like Jason got ahold of this power by himself...but if he did, how would he...? He's only mortal after all... He can't possibly be more.  
  
Losing my head with these train of thoughts, I was grateful for the knock that disrupted them. When no one answered I just thought that I didn't hear anyone say anything. Come in, I tried to say...but I thought I said it so I half expected a reply.  
  
There was no reply to that, this time I knew that for sure. The door slightly slid open and a cool breeze blew in kissing my skin lightly. The wind seemed to have a color to it... not a discolor, but a certain peaceful tinge of blue. I inhaled it softly and a refreshing feeling breezed through my body. I closed my eyes and uncounsiously started to embrace this unusual wind. When I opened them, I felt heathlier than I ever was before. I lifted my arms and a numb feeling still stung through them, but in moments, they felt fully refreshed.  
  
I jumped out of bed and felt a slight head rush, dizzy for only a few seconds, I opened the door to see if anyone was out there. An escaping wind quickly blew past me and the warm humid air returned. I looked down the halls and saw they were completely empty. I searched for my voice, but it still hadn't returned. I cursed silently, but then thanked whatever force that had healed me. It was strange, this was the strangest paranormal thing that had happened to me, but I could only thank it and move on.  
  
I wanted to call out to Kibou because I had no idea where Chichiri's room was, but I gritted my teeth, cursing Jason and vowing that he would pay dearly.  
  
"Wow... that was fast." Kibou said behind me.  
  
When I turned I saw she was holding a towel and a small bucket of ice water.  
  
"Chichiri's still out cold, so I couldn't talk to him. I thought you felt like shit?"  
  
My mouth opened, but quickly closed, again forgetting that I couldn't talk.  
  
"What happened to your voice?"  
  
Waving my arms around pointing aimlessly in every direction, I quickly realized that I needed paper. I acted out writing on a peice of paper. "You want paper?"  
  
I nodded vigourously. "I don't know where paper is..."  
  
My head dropped. 'You're hopeless', I wanted to say.  
  
"Maybe Tasuki would know. Come on... When'd you lose your voice?"  
  
'I can't answer that ya dumb shit!!' I so deserately wanted to say feeling myself twitch at the stupidity of the question.  
  
We crossed the courtyard to get to the other side of the palace faster. It was extremely hot, the sun as beating down on me, squeezing out every drop of sweat. I wished that I could have the comfortable weather of my home, but I can't really control the weather...  
  
"Chiriko-sama!" a soldier yelled running over to us and kneeling.  
  
"Please, we need your assistance out in the battlefeild!"  
  
"Ok...I'll be right-...I'm on my way."  
  
"Thank you very much, Chiriko-sama."  
  
The soldier got up and ran back towards the battlefield. Kibou turned towards me. "Try to act out that he needs to come out into the battlefield and that you need paper... he doesn't know how to read our language so that isn't going to help. Ok?"  
  
I nodded and Kibou drew her sword and headed towards the battlefeild as well.  
  
"Take care of yourself, Elly! I don' t know if you'll be so lucky next time!"  
  
She disapeared off into the city quickly. I raised an eyebrow...she certainly got faster. I walked sluggishly towards to Tasuki's room. I almost seemed pointless to go to Tasuki's room, I'm probably gonna spend about an hour or two playing charades. Nothing better to do though, I can't really sit back and watch TV here...I have to actually go outside and do something.  
  
I soon found myself in front of Tasuki's door and knocked softly.  
  
"Who is it?"  
  
Dammit I can't answer that. "Who is it?" he repeated.  
  
I opened the door slowly and poked my head in. "Oh, ya could've said somethin'. You feelin better already?"  
  
Nodding, I closed the door behind me. "What do ya want?"  
  
I acted out that I was holding a writing utensil writing on a peice of paper or something. "What? Can't ya talk?"  
  
I shook my head. "What happened?"  
  
Are you stupid?! ARGH! YOU AND KIBOU BOTH!!! I shot a glare at him.  
  
"Oh yeah... so what am I supposed t'do about it?"  
  
Once again, I acted out writing on something but he still looked dumbfounded. I tried again trying to make him read my lips. 'P-A-P-E-R', I tried to say to him, my lips forming every letter I could. Once again he looked clueless. I grabbed my head and tossed it around in frustration. You IDIOT!!  
  
This is his god damn way of torturing me... I'll kill him...I swear...this is beyond torture...This is...this is...  
  
"...Are...ya alright?" Tasuki asked raising an eyebrow.  
  
..I'm going to strangle you... I thought holding my hands up close to his neck. "...Are...ya...hungry..?"  
  
My head dropped, a strangled tear stained my eye... This is hopeless... Utterly hopeless. Giving up...I decided to have him give me food. I nodded abandoning all thoughts of communicating with him.  
  
"Well ya shoulda said so! Come on..."  
  
He walked in front of my and I raised my hand up imatating hold a knife and then followed close behind him. ... I knew he was dense...but...This is kind of ridiculous! He got a tray of food from somewhere in the kitchen from one of the cooks and we shared the food at an empty table on a balcony in Kibou's room. Tasuki only took a dumpling and stared off into the battlefield while I ate an actual meal. He looked a bit blank and the face didn't seem to fit him.  
  
I wanted to start a slight conversation with him, but the annoyance of my voice missing was killing me.  
  
"..Ha...I should be out there, shouldn't I?" he said, turning back to get another dumpling. He didn't look at me for another reply, he just turned back.  
  
"God, Chichiri's actin' so funny... Can't really leave you, can I?"  
  
I faintly smiled not even attempting to say otherwise. "It's too bad you lost yer voice..." He said getting up. "Anyway, I'm gonna head back to my room....if ya' need anythin' just knock... You shouldn't worry 'bout Chichiri at this point... He's not gonna be able to move fer a while."  
  
I nodded and watched him leave. I walked out and tunred to head towards Chichiri's room. Reaching his door, I hesitated for a second before opening the door. What if Jason pocesses him again... No...Chichir's body's too weak now... I opened the door quietly. "K-Kibou, no da?"  
  
I popped my head in and shook my head. "Oh, Ellyn, no da. Are you alright, no da?" He asked barely looking my direction.  
  
I nodded. "Is something wrong with your voice, no da?"  
  
Wow, he realized this quickly. Thank you, whatever god is up there for finding a person with a brain...  
  
"Jason must've done that... Well...Once we figure all this out...I'm sure you'll get your voice back, no da."  
  
I acted out a pencil writing on paper again. "Paper, na no da? I'd help you but I can't get up... I'll tell one of the maids when they come by to give you paper, no da."  
  
He's not STUPID!! This has to be some kind of miracle...! Kibou can't give up on this guy, it would be such a waste...I know she isn't going to once all this is over...but still...he knew what I was saying. I felt a tear in my eye and I wanted to hug him just now. I pointed to myself, crossed my arms at the middle of my chest, and point at him, trying to say that I loved him because he understood me.  
  
"Not a problem, no da... Where's Kibou, no da?"  
  
I pointed out towards the battlefield and he nodded. "I'm sure you'll get your voice back soon, no da. Jason is probably has something to do with this... Have you seen Tasuki or Kibou after your lost your voice, no da?"  
  
I nodded. "And they didn't suspect anything, no da? That's strange, na no da. I could understand Tasuki not being able to notice why your voice was lost... but Kibou is usually worried about other people's health, no da."  
  
Only doing things she had to as she thought of something else...That's what happened so I understand why she barely noticed.  
  
"This must be Jason's sick way of having fun, no da... Did I hurt you too bad when Jason pocessed me, no da?"  
  
I shook my head; it did hurt, but I was fine now so I couldn't say that I completely remembered the pain. Right now, it seemed that I never even had the pain inflicted on me. I walked to the door.  
  
"Thanks for helping out, Ellyn, no da. I hope that this Jason absurdity ends before some else gets hurt, na no da..."  
  
I nodded and left the room. I was helping? How could I help when I'm just in the way? I walked down to the courtyard and saw a rush of people coming towards the palace. I froze for a moment, but a moment was all they needed before they practically trampled over me. The last person follow behind them was Kibou, and a shocked look engraved her face. I wanted to know what happened but I didn't know how to ask.  
  
She turned and looked at me, her eyes were filled with strangled tears.  
  
"The emperor's...dead..."  
  
Well I think that turned out pretty well... Again, thank you Otaku-no-miko for being my beta thingy. I'm still thinking about what to do, because I know this story is coming closer and closer to the end and I want the ending to well...make sense... So That's why I want to redo a few chapters...but do I lose reveiws if I do that? If anyone knows please tell me...  
  
And I also want to have a little vote on what I should do:  
  
Get Chapter 27 out next  
  
Get the few begining chapters out next  
  
Work on both at the same time.  
  
Well reveiw!  
  
CosmicMoon 


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